


There’s no such thing as fate

by Courageous_Cat



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Adventure, Anal Sex, Bisexual Triad, Control Issues, Crossdressing, Dream Sex, F/M, Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII Remake Spoilers, Genderqueer, Hurt/Comfort, Light Bondage, M/M, OT3, Pegging, Polyamory, Rimming, Romance, Threesome - F/M/M, Vaginal Sex, Zack Fair Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:34:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 79,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24793981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Courageous_Cat/pseuds/Courageous_Cat
Summary: The team have left Midgar and are now beginning their wider journey through Gaia. In the aftermath of what has happened so far, Cloud confesses his feelings to a shocked Aerith. But what about Zack? Before Cloud reached Midgar, Cloud and Zack trekked through the surrounding badlands to get there. Why did they have to part ways?  Despite this, Zack eventually meets up with the team – and a Cloud that doesn’t remember him (at least not at first). Once they’re all together, though, Cloud, Aerith, and Zack, bring these deep interconnections to the table. Meanwhile, Sephiroth sets his plans into motion as the team does their best to stop him and save the world.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife, Sephiroth/Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Comments: 21
Kudos: 78





	1. Kalm

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! I didn’t want to put Remake spoilers into the summary, so I saved the spoliery plot description and put it here. So, one part of the premise is that by Aerith warning Cloud off of loving her, it made him realize his feelings for her early in their journey. The second part of the premise is that Zack is alive, but couldn’t go to Midgar with Cloud. 
> 
> So the story runs in parallel for a little while (maybe three chapters), between the present and past, until Zack meets up with everyone. And it will be even more fun once they do meet up!

The town of Kalm did indeed seem calm to Cloud, at least after all they had been through these past few days in Midgar. It wasn’t just that they had been fighting against Shinra – the most powerful and fucked up organization in the world. It was the near misses that they all faced. And it was Cloud’s realization that he had real friends and couldn’t stand to lose them – especially Aerith and Tifa. And the Sector 7 plate falling – that they had failed to prevent. He felt terrible about it, but his feelings were nothing compared to Tifa’s grief. And the loss of Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge. It hurt too much to dwell on it. It’s the confusing visions they’ve been getting. It’s the guilt Cloud feels for remembering nearly nothing before he arrived in Midgar and faking his way through everything. It’s knowing the little bit about the past that he does know, and being deeply shaken by it. 

It’s their confrontation with Sephiroth, who should be dead – because Cloud killed him, he knows that much. The war hero Sephiroth who he has always idolized, that became something of a friend to him, and that went insane. And it’s the direct interference of the planet in the form of Whispers and the Harbingers of Fate – that they destroyed for better or worse. And it’s the most shocking thing of all – that Jenova, and Sephiroth through her, endanger their very planet. 

Calm. That probably wasn’t the meaning of the town’s name, but it would always have that association for Cloud from now on. And really that feeling began as they passed through a field of wild flowers on the way in to town. They had passed through the Midgar badlands and now the air was cool and pleasantly breezy across Cloud’s skin, cooling him. The breezed also swept the smell of grass and flowers across his face. Aerith wants to go back there later, maybe in the morning, once they’re rested. To see what the flowers might tell her. 

They didn’t talk about any of those things that they had been through as they traveled – too concerned with supplies, and camping, and fighting the monsters they came across. They weren’t very good at building fires, setting up tents, and packing bags, but Cloud taught them. So, they didn’t about anything serious, but they were all clearly thinking about it as they walked with solemn expressions. 

Now that they ate, and took a quick glance around town, they all sat in Cloud and Barret’s room at the Inn in Kalm. There is a pervasive silence among them. Cloud was sat next to Tifa on his narrow bed, with him sitting slightly forward with his arms resting on his legs. Tifa was leaning back on her arms with her legs crossed. Barret and Aerith were on the other bed, with Aerith across from Cloud with a straight but relaxed posture and hands loosely in her lap. Barret was sitting slightly wide-legged with one hand on a leg as he looked away into the room. Red XIII sat on his haunches between the two beds, completing a U shape among them.

Cloud was starting to wonder if he was the one that was supposed to start them talking. But where to start? He decided to get his part out of the way. 

He talked about what he remembered about what happed five years ago as a SOLDIER accompanying Sephiroth in Nibelheim. Tifa added to the telling from what she knew as well – she was there too, afterall. He felt a familiar stab of guilt over what she went through that day. That he couldn’t protect her from seeing those horrors, from her dad being killed, from all of them being killed including his mother. Now he was getting lost in the past…eyes glazing over as he remembered bits and pieces about his mother. He wondered what she would have thought of Aerith. She told him once he should date someone a little older than him to keep him straightened out. Cloud almost smiled at the thought.

Tifa put a gentle hand on his shoulder and it brought him back to the present. He must have stopped talking and he didn’t know for how long. He looked at each member of their small group, lingering the longest on Aerith whose expression was more understanding than he would have guessed, as well as with a kindness that made his chest pleasantly warm. He gathered himself again and finished the story. 

When was done, his mind drifted again in the resulting silence. Cloud remembered Hojo telling him in front of the others that he was never a SOLDIER, that he was something else. He didn’t know what Hojo meant by that, but he could guess it had something to do with Jenova by the others things he had said. Or he was just messing with him. Either way, none of the others brought it up even though he half expected them too, and he was grateful for that. 

He thought of Sephiroth again, and questions about recent events burned in his mind. Things that he said. Things that Aerith said. Cloud looked at Aerith and asked her, probingly, “But Sephiroth wasn’t just crazy, was he?” 

“No,” she answered with certainty. “Though her getting into his head like that might have made him so. Who he is since then. It was, and is, the result of Jenova’s influence over him.”

‘The way he tried to influence me?’ he though, but couldn’t say. He didn’t want to do or say anything that would shake their faith in him. He was the SOLDIER. He had to keep it together for them. Besides, he wouldn’t let that happen. Instead, he asked, “So, he’s not – him?” The thought that there was nothing left of what made him Sephiroth hurt more than he thought it would. He was just – gone… It also means that he likely did not willingly betray him. Has all of his anger at him been misplaced? Could he have done more to save him? So much of it is fuzzy in his mind. 

“No,” she said sympathetically. “And so he is, undeniably the enemy of the entire planet, and of all of humanity.” 

Cloud let the words wash over him, with both pain and resolve. She was right. He looked her in the eyes and nodded his agreement. 

“And what about the Whispers, and the Harbingers of Fate? They wanted things to go the way it’s ‘supposed to be’, right?” Barrett asked the room.

“Yes,” agreed Aerith, “But Sephiroth learned things he shouldn’t have in the Lifestream and so things must already be different in order to stop him completely.”

“How much do you know about how it’s supposed to be?” Tifa asked. 

“About as much as you I guess,” she answered, not entirely convincingly, but no one challenged her. Cloud certainly wouldn’t. There were plenty of things he didn’t want to talk about either. 

“So we must outthink Jenova in light of what Sephiroth learned,” Red said, and all looked at him. “We must learn about whatever he knows, guess at what he would do with that knowledge to gain an advantage, and be a step ahead of him in preventing that from happening.”

“That all?” Barret asked, sarcastically. 

“Sephiroth said some things to me before you all got there,” Cloud informed them. He didn’t want to talk about the way Sephiroth tried to convince him to join him (again). It reminded him of the way that he had wanted to, at least in the moment. But he did tell them everything else. 

When Cloud was done, Barrett made a pained noise, “This is about all I can take of this right now. That’s enough for today, don’cha think everybody?” 

Everyone agreed. They really did need get a good night’s sleep. 

~

The next morning, Cloud accompanied Aerith to the field of wildflowers, while Barret and Tifa went to meet with an Avalanche cell. Aerith had been surprised at his offer to go with her but accepted with a pleased smile. She was in really good spirits. Traveling through the badlands took a toll on her, especially since the wider world was so new to her in the first place. But now she was rested and had a huge breakfast, and her good mood put Cloud in a better mood too.

There was a taco place along the way, still closed since it’s the morning. Cloud looked at the pictures and half-remembered something about his cadet days. 

“Taco fan?” Aerith asked good-naturedly. 

As he thought about it, he remembered a little more. “I never tried one until I first came to Midgar as a cadet and I had about ten when the mess served it up that night.”

Aerith laughed. “Then we have to eat there tonight. How old were you?”

“Fourteen?”

“So young.”

“It was my dream,” he told her. Then almost didn’t add and then decided to, “To be just like Sephiroth.” 

“Well, I think who you turned out to be is beyond comparison,” she told him with finality, giving his arm a firm pat. 

Cloud felt like a stronger person just from hearing her say that to him. And as if he wanted to prove her right every day. 

Until…he couldn’t help but think about when she told him (was that even real?) that his feelings for her were fake, and wondered if, when she said that just now, whether she really thought he was all that great. The word ‘puppet’ pulsed in his head for a moment. He deliberately shook it off, along with his feeling of dejection, because he’s already decided that he’s going to tell her how he feels. And then he’ll know how she feels, too. 

They passed a weapons shop next, and Cloud noticed Aerith eye some throwing daggers. Cloud imagined what Aerith would look like throwing them. At first he imagined her throwing in an inexperienced way – with a loose arm, and following through too much so that she was leaning way forward. Ok, that’s cute. But then he imagined her after some practice – her arm and wrist flicking just right, eyes narrowed, and using her legs to add power to it. It made him a little warm in the face, and more than a little intrigued. “Do you want to learn how to fight physically?” Cloud asked, curious. 

Aerith looked back at him with excitement, “It’s fun to think about, until I think about actually hurting someone that way. It’s not my style.” 

“You’re really great with spells, but it could be useful in a situation where you can’t use magic,” Cloud suggested. After a moment’s thought, he offered, “I could teach you to use your staff like a physical weapon.” 

Aerith looked very surprised at the offer. And cutely flustered, mouth agape. After taking a moment to gather herself, she turned to him and told him, “I might take you up on that, Cloud, thank you.”

Cloud nodded and offered her a small smile that held a lot of happiness. 

That’s quite the smile, Mr. SOLDIER,” she commented. 

“I guess you bring it out in me,” Cloud replied. 

Aerith’s surprise intensified, and she seemed unable to comment. They walked a minute in silence, and Cloud was swimming in flirty-happy-awkwardness. 

“Do you really think I could fight with my staff?” Aerith asked after a while, as she twirled it capably around herself as she walked. She tried to pass it under her raised leg next but it got caught in her dress fell to the ground. They both laughed at her antics, and Cloud was relieved at the break in tension. 

“I do,” Cloud answered after he eventually stopped laughing. 

~

There were long purple flowers, puffy yellow ones, and some small white ones, too. The field was densely packed with them all. And it was so green all around them. Cloud followed Aerith out to the middle of the field, and she sat down with her legs tucked under her. 

Cloud realized he didn’t know where to put himself and he stood next to her for a moment. Then Aerith patted a spot adjacent to her in invitation as she looked up at him in encouragement. Cloud sat with his legs tucked like hers, facing North while Aerith was facing West. Cloud’s right knee was a few inches from Aerith’s left one. 

“I don’t know if this will work,” she admitted to him confidentially. “There’s a bigger connection to the Lifestream here, outside of the city, so the flowers should be able to talk louder. Or more like I’ll be able to hear them better. But they only ever speak when they want to. And to be honest, I wonder if they’re angry with me. With us. For defying the will of the planet.”

“It doesn’t hurt to just try,” Cloud urged gently. 

Aerith nodded in agreement and closed her eyes. Aerith’s breaths slowed, and took on a steady rhythm that Cloud found himself matching as he watched her. Eventually, his own eyes slid shut and he just enjoyed the rare peacefulness of the moment. He felt the wind and heard the grass move. Heard her breathing. Eventually he heard Aerith push out an exhaled breath and he opened his eyes to look at her.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“They’re calling out to me, but it’s still hard to hear them. It’s…better than in Midgar though, with all the mako reactors and steel. I know it’s not the flowers that are talking, but the consciousness of the Lifestream. It’s time I start thinking of it the way it is. They need our help still. It seems silly now to think that they would start ignoring me.” Her empathy was radiating off of her as she talked, and it stirred something in Cloud as well. 

“Is it the reactor for the town that’s interfering with you hearing them?”

“I think so. The more natural the area, the better I’ll hear them.”

“Then we’ll go somewhere you can hear them better.”

Aerith nodded, “Barret and Tifa went to meet up the local Avalanche cell in town right? We can compare what we’ve learned and decide together what to do next.”

“Right.”

Aerith hesitated, then added, “There’s also the ruins of the Cetra. If the ruins exists, it would a powerful place for me to communicate with the planet.” 

“Then we’ll find out where it is,” Cloud said, grasping her arm. The grasp felt like something a comrade might do, at least at first. But Cloud let it linger and he thought his face might have changed, and Aerith stood up, breaking the hold. 

~

Cloud followed her in standing and faced her, settling a foot away from her. 

He looked at her openly and earnestly, clearly with something to say, then asked, “Was it really you in my dream when you said not to fall in love with you?”

Aerith was startled by the question, and doubt crossed Cloud’s face in response like he was about to take the question back. “It was me,” she admitted before he could. The reason she was surprised wasn’t that she didn’t talk to him that night through his dream (though she has been wondering all this time if they really connected or if it was all in her imagination). No, the reason she was surprised was because he brought it up to her. 

Cloud. The most romantically oblivious man on the planet (even if it’s understandable!) – until today. He’s surprised her quite a few times today, actually. What she knows of the future is vague and tied to critical events, but she knows the man he is – under the badass façade, and she knows the amazing man he will become through all that they endure. And her heart thunders in her chest at his question.

“It was,” she repeated. 

“Why?” he asked. And though it was just one word, it conveyed a longing and sadness, and defiance all at once. 

When she warned him off back then, it was because she was certain she would die, and that he would spend years mourning her even though they were never together. But…now…with the will of the planet defeated, and with Cloud clearly not as oblivious (thanks to her own interference?!),...what if it could be different?

“Honestly, I was trying to protect your feelings. Because…I think that on the path that we’re on things are going to get bumpy.” She chose her words as carefully as she could. He looked back at her with concern at what she had said. He seemed to want to ask what was going to happen. Before he could, she added, “But, it turns out, our path is wide open after all.” She was scared at her own words even as she said them. What she pretty much just said to him was, ‘Nevermind, totally feel free to fall in love with me if you want!’ 

Cloud’s eyes widened. He had been ready to argue, she realized now as he deflated, but now there was no need, and his expression softened. And he licked his lips subconsciously. And Aerith subconsciously looked right at his lips as he did, making her bite her own lower lip for a moment. 

“My feelings are not fake,” he said softly but with conviction. Aerith cringed at how her words had clearly bothered him, for him to say it like that. It was a cruel thing to say to someone who secretly doesn’t know who he is, isn’t it? “And I think you must know more about me than you’re saying for it to even mean anything at all. Maybe you know even more than I do.” Then he says, with more passion, “I don’t know everything, Aerith, but I know that I like you.” 

Aerith gasped in a breath. Both stung, and swelling with happiness at the same time. “I’m so sorry that I said that to you,” she told him, and meant it. “And I want to make it up to you. But before that, I need to tell you…I like you too, Cloud,” she said with emotion.

What if she just didn’t know what she was doing when she tried to influence things? By warning Cloud off, she tipped him off to his feelings. So is it really better to avoid getting closer? Maybe…maybe by finding happiness in each other now, even if she doesn’t make it until the end, he’ll make it through everything better for having known that happiness? Maybe he could even open up to Tifa better because of it? And if Aerith does survive, wouldn’t that be wonderful! Is it just wishful thinking? She couldn’t be sure. But what she was sure of was how he was looking at her, open and happier than she’s ever seen and it brought a wide smile to her own lips. 

Cloud stepped in close. Took her hand. Aerith felt the firm pressure on her palm and fingers, took in the cut of his jaw, the blue and mako green of his too-bright eyes, the freckles on his face, and soft look of his lips, slightly parted. He was looking at her too, as if he couldn’t believe she let him get so close to her.

She leaned in closer, her pulse quickening. Slowly, they each moved closer still, angling their heads. Aerith put a hand on his bare shoulder, and squeezed it gently. They lowered their eyes, and their lips touched in a gentle kiss. Everything else fell away – their troubles and doubts - as they kissed, transfixed. 

Kissing Cloud made her feel like she was floating. 

When they parted, Cloud’s face was flushed beautifully, and Aerith commented on the kiss with, “Wow.”

“Yeah, wow.”

Aerith grabbed him gently by the neck and pulled him back in. After a moment, she deepened the kiss, pushing her tongue gently into his mouth. Cloud opened his mouth and moaned softly, and it sent a shiver of pleasure through Aerith. 

Cloud’s kisses were a little shy at first, but he gained confidence quickly. 

Cloud held her by the waist with one hand and her shoulder with the other and stepped closer. Aerith hummed at his touch, the whisper of contact between their bodies and the way she had to tilt her head up further, making her melt into him a little. 

Cloud took control of the pace of the kiss, slow and passionate. Just like how his actions expressed what he didn’t or couldn’t say, his feeling were showing through with every kiss and touch. 

Aerith has thought about kissing him plenty of times, but this was so much better than she could have hoped. She would have easily settled for keeping things light since it was so difficult for him to process his feelings, but his body language and his expressions held depth - awareness. But more than that…more than that, she found herself completely swept away. 

Cloud wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tighter. Aerith’s whole body heated up in response, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. It was a long time before they pulled away, but when they did, they leaned their foreheads together, taking the other in, feeling each other’s breaths. 

Oh yea, there’s no going back.

*

Cloud didn’t interact with the world around him - with Zack - for months. Sure, he could mostly do things, like walk and eat, on some sort of auto-pilot. But when Zack talked to him he had no idea if he heard him. Still, he tried, partly to keep himself sane because there was nothing else to do and no one else to talk to, but also in hopes that it would help him break out of that mako-haze he was in. 

Recently though, Cloud came out of it sometimes, and it was a huge relief. The first few times it was for just a few minutes. Then for longer and longer. The longest so far was two hours. Zack was so happy the first few times didn’t know what to do with himself. So he talked to him – even more animatedly than before, and asked him questions. He couldn’t hold a conversation at first, but Zack could tell he was listening. Sometimes he just tried to make him laugh, and when it worked that made Zack’s day. Then Cloud started talking too, sometimes with a completely unrelated subject, but whatever. 

One day Cloud asked as they walked, “Do you think we would have been friends if all this shit didn’t happen?”

“Absolutely,” Zack replied easily. “We were gunna have lunch, remember?”

“Yea,” he replied after a moment, as if pulling the memory closer in his mind. 

“I bet we would have become famous friends. We were already getting along so well. What’s your favorite food?” Zack asked, warming up to imagining what it would have been like if they had returned home as planned to Midgar five years ago. 

Cloud seemed to struggle with the question, then said, “I remember tacos.”

“Hey, tacos are great. So we would have had a taco lunch. And you were trying to get into SOLDIER, so I probably would have given you some pointers.”

“Then I would have asked you to spar all the time.”

“Yes. You were extremely motivated I remember. You would have been a Third Class in no time. And when you turned 18, I would have gotten you wasted. Out all night.” They both laughed. “And I would have given you pointers on dates, too.” 

“What makes you think I need pointers?”

“Everyone does,” Zack replied with a smile. 

~

When he thought it would help, Zack rubbed his arm when it seemed like he might fade out again to keep him focused. Then Zack’s touches became more casual. A pat on the shoulder as he got up, a friendly arm around his shoulder when they managed to laugh. Then Cloud would do it, too. Then then casual changed to comforting. A rub at on the back when Cloud looked overwhelmed, or Cloud holding onto his knee when he confessed to his own doubts about their situation – especially from those first few weeks. 

Then comforting to affectionate. Cloud would sometimes lean against him after dinner, and Zack might rub circles at the small of Cloud’s back. It was in the midst of this development that Zack started to realize that they were leaving friend or comrade territories, and wading into the romantic. Zack didn’t want to overthink it. But he knew he found those moments to be immensely comforting. 

Then one night they were full-out cuddling, while they were in the forest on their long way to Midgar. They were laying on their sides with Cloud’s face in his chest, arm wrapped around each other. He started carding his hands through his chocobo-colored hair. After what seemed like 30 minutes of this or so, Cloud pulled back and smiled openly in a way that reminded Zack of his younger, more carefree self, but something else too - Like Zack was all he needed in the world. It made Zack’s brain stutter. Zack leaned closer, and then stopped himself. Scolded himself for almost rushing in. Instead, he moved back again as nonchalantly as possible and said to Cloud, “You have a great smile, Cloud.”

Cloud’s expression transformed into pleased surprise at that, with a cute blush forming on his cheeks. “So do you. You have a great…everything, Zack.”

It startled a laugh out of Zack. It wasn’t just flattery. Though, yes, it was flagrant flattery. But it was also said with such sincerity that it warmed his heart. Then Zack was looking at him with new eyes. Cloud wasn’t unaware of what was going on between them, then. 

Spurred on, energized by this revelation, he said to Cloud with a warm smile, “Yea? I’m a great kisser, too, I’ll have you know,” and waited for a reaction. He tried for a casual, no-pressure tone, but thought he probably failed. There was at least a little seductive heat thrown in there, too. 

Cloud’s face grew redder, expression even more open, and they just looked at each other. Cloud’s lips parted. Then he answered softly, “Show me.” And that’s when Zack’s brain completely imploded, and he made an unintelligible noise in his throat. But still he found that he was moving closer to Cloud anyway, even without a functioning brain. 

Cloud looked surprised for a moment that he was actually moving closer, but then he was all anticipation. All half-lidded eyes and quickening breath. Zack worried briefly about whether Cloud was in his right mind enough for this, but remembering the way that Cloud has never pulled away from him, only ever leaned in, satisfied the sudden doubt. 

When his lips were nearly on Clouds, he cupped his cheek with his hand, and rubbed across the line of his jaw with his thumb. In response, Cloud put his hand against his chest and closed his eyes and knit his brow. Zack had never seen that expression on his face before (obviously!), but it sent a pang of heat and affection through his entire body. 

Zack let his lips hover above Clouds for a moment and he closed his own eyes and let the feeling linger. He could feel Cloud’s breath on his lips. Then he closed that tiny distance between them and kissed him gently. 

It felt like there was fire in his veins and like he was coming home all at the same time. Both their lips were rough and chapped, but Cloud’s lips gave delightfully with a pillowy softness that made Zack want to kiss him over and over again. Which he did. And Cloud kissed him back, moving his body closer to him as he did. 

Zack traced his tongue against the seam of his lips. Cloud opened his mouth to him and moaned at the contact of their tongues twining together. After some time, Cloud opened his mouth wider, tilted his head and kissed his harder. Zack grunted his approval and pulled Cloud’s head in by the neck, then moved to draw Cloud flush against him by the small of his back, then Zack’s hands were on either side of his face.

Cloud laughed through the kissing at his attempt at having his hands everywhere at once. 

“Can you blame me for being so enthusiastic?” Zack asked him with a laugh of his own. “I mean, have you seen yourself?” 

Cloud replied by kissing him some more, arms around him.


	2. Costa del Sol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team arrives in Costa del Sol, and Cloud and Aerith find some alone time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a full chapter centered around Cloud and Aerith getting closer (Explicit content!). I thought it best to keep it all together, and then have only Cloud and Zack in the next chapter.

They’ve spent the past few weeks chasing leads on Sephiroth. It was easy enough for them all to decide that that was their number one priority, back in Kalm. 

The Avalanche cell in Kalm had been extremely interested in the team’s first-hand account of what happened in Midgar. After the initial meeting with Barret and Tifa, they wanted to talk to all of them. In return, they spread the word across the continent to keep an eye out for the Great Sephiroth, and within a couple days they got back a message of him being spotted in Junon. 

The Kalm Avalanche also had them hang back until they could get them some off-the-grid cell phones. All normal cell phones are made by, and accessible to, Shinra, but they have a former employee in a nearby town that takes care of that for Avalanche’s benefit. None of the records on those phones get centrally stored anywhere, not even by Avalanche; and there’s a hand app installed that wipes the phones real quick if needed or if it’s tampered with. 

On the way to Junon, when they were out in the middle of nowhere in the center of the continent (it was so open, and beautiful, and scary out there), Aerith tried to connect to the planet again, but she still felt too far away to hear much. But she did understand their support, as well as their worry and suffering. She tried her best to express her resolution to help the planet and all of the people that lived on it, and the faith and trust that she had in their team to do what it takes to win. 

Once they reached Junon, they found out Sephiroth boarded a ship to the vacation town, Costa Del Sol. Not before leaving them a present of course - a part of Jenova ready for a fight. At least they were heading in the right direction. 

Aerith noticed how Cloud has been opening up a little bit more as a leader. He’s more patient and helpful, and he’s open to ideas but also decisive. But most of all, he exudes a commitment to moving forward that keeps everyone else going, too. 

When it comes to their relationship, they’re always eager to spend time together. Sometimes they would go off alone for a while when they broke for lunch or set up camp for the night. Early on, Aerith decided she would make things up to Cloud for warning him off the way she did before by telling him exactly what she liked about him. As she talked, he grew so flushed and happy, and it made her need to kiss him silly – which she did. The next day, he told her why he liked her too. 

It didn’t take long for everyone to catch on that they were together. One night, when they came back to the group, Tifa rolled her eyes good-naturedly and said, “You know we all know, right?” Tifa, bless her, was still a great friend to both of them even though she has feelings for Cloud of her own. Aerith didn’t know if it would help to talk to her about it or not, so she tucked that thought away for later. Instead, she took every opportunity to show her how much of a friend she was to her. 

Cloud was fun to be with when he joked around, but it was when he showed his thoughtfulness and genuine kindness that Aerith was truly blown away. 

As for the physical side of their relationship, things were continuing to heat up. They found they could manage to be quiet enough if they shared a tent and set up further away from everyone else. And it was fun, to try and keep quiet while Cloud had her dress pushed up to her waist and his hand in her panties, and using his fingers to make her feel so good. And she would open his pants and wrap her hand around him, loving the feel of him in her hand and the look on his face when he lost himself to it.

Then, when they stayed at the Junon port, though things were tense in the search for Sephiroth, they at least had the benefit of a shared room. When they were all deciding who would be sleeping in which rooms, it just took one look between her and Cloud to agree that they felt some time alone was overdue. So when things got hot and heavy this time, they kept on going. It wasn’t long before their clothes were off and Aerith was trailing down the length of Cloud’s body and surrounding Cloud’s dick with her mouth. 

She sucked and licked bobbed until he was coming, spurting hard in her mouth, much to Aerith’s satisfaction. He blissed out for a few long minutes where Aerith looked at his gorgeous face and stroked his toned chest. When he came to, he laid her back and enthusiastically lapped and sucked at her sex, and thrusting his fingers into her, which she was so ready for by that point, until she came too, stretching her back and arching her neck backward. When she continued to pulse with aftershocks he sucked on her some more, drawing out her orgasm further. Holy shit that had been amazing. 

When they got off the ship, and arrived at Costa Del Sol, Aerith took in the scene around her. Happy vacationers enjoying the beach; couples and families walking toward the boardwalk for food and shopping. It dawned on her that their group looked out of place, but she was sure they could fix that if need be. She scoured the crowd, looking for Sephiroth. As if it would be that easy. She imaged Sephiroth lounging in the sun in a black bathing suit, arms behind his head in relaxation. Yeah right. She sighed lightly. 

“We should ask around,” Cloud said, “see if anyone’s seen a man with his description.”

“We’ll have more luck if we blend in with the crowd,” Aerith puts in, “look more like vacationers.”

“Yea,” Tifa agreed, “make it seem like we’re looking for a friend – or Uncle or something I guess, rather than someone we wanted to knock straight through the nearest palm tree.” 

Aerith laughed.

“We don’t have the time or money to play vacationer,” Barret said. “We can ask around without all that, find Sephiroth, and get some answers just fine. I have this sailor get-up so that’s enough blending in already.” It’s true that Barret already blended in just fine, but it would really help for the rest of them to do the same. 

Cloud thought for a moment, then said to everyone, “Try whatever way you like – just text if you spot him. Otherwise, we’ll meet up at five o’clock and take it from there.”

“Fine,” Barret said.

Just then Red XIII ran off to a group of children nearby and started playing ball with them. Well, he was a child himself. He should play. And he wouldn’t blend in very well on a manhunt anyway. 

“We should see if there’s anything useful to buy here while we’re at it: weapons, items, materia,” Clouded added. 

“Got it. Come on, Tifa, let’s get some bathing suits,” Aerith said as she locked arms with her and started them walking. 

~

Cloud went off on his own to do the needed shopping in the town square and then got himself a pair of blue swimming shorts. He’s used the direct approach to getting answers plenty of times, he reasoned. Aerith’s attitude inspired him to try the subtle one along with her. Plus, thinking about Aerith in a bathing suit was doing things to him, and he figured if he was going to be checking her out he should make it an even playing field. 

Once he was changed, Cloud starting asking around. Most of the people he encountered were really friendly – they were on vacation, he reasoned. And the ones around his age were all smiles and there were some not-so-subtle attempts to flirt with him. He couldn’t bring himself to smile back the way Aerith might have done, but he kept a neutral expression that seemed to be enough for them to answer his questions openly. 

After a few hours, he found Aerith talking with a group of young women. Cloud saw she had changed into a yellow bikini that was as bright as her personality. He stopped walking and stood a distance away. They seemed deep in conversation, so he decided to buy a couple of soft-serve ice creams from a nearby stand. When he got back, the group was starting to walk away, giving Aerith waves of goodbye. Cloud approached her. 

“It’s getting pretty hot,” Cloud said, handing her vanilla/chocolate swirl ice cream. He didn’t know what she liked, so why not two flavors? He got the same for himself. 

Aerith smiled brightly at him, at first in greeting, and then at the presented ice cream. “You’re such a sweetie,” she told him. It made Cloud’s heart swell. He gave her a smile, then asked, “Any luck?”

“Noo,” she said in exaggerated dejection. “Not you either, huh? I can tell by the way you asked.”

“No,” he confirmed. “Want to ask around together for a while?”

“Miss me?” Aerith asked probingly, leaning cutely toward him a little.

He did, actually. “I did.” 

“Well then,” Aerith said, pleased, holding his hand, “let’s go.”

“Tifa and I did a quick job before we split up. It paid good, too,” she told him rubbing her fingers together in the gesture for money. 

“Yea? What was the job?” Cloud asked, curious. 

“It was pretty much package delivery, nothing like a merc job,” she explained. “’Could you take this antique doo-dad and bring it to my wife at the hotel?’” she quoted with an exaggerated snooty voice. It made Cloud smile. “Some of the people here are loaded, and are looking for any excuse not to have to lift a finger. We lined up a few more jobs like that too.” 

“Very nice,” Cloud complimented. “We can make some easy money before leaving town. I’ll still check out the merc jobs later too.” 

“So, in Tifa and my opinion, we should stay at a hotel after all. A little investment on the way to easy money,” she said lightly and confidently. “Plus, ya-know, there’s something to be said about a nice comfy bed once in a while. Saving money’s all well and good, but it’s all a trade-off. If we run ourselves ragged we won’t fight as well. Or maybe we’ll miss a clue about what’s next that should have been obvious.” Cloud could see how much she wanted to stay. She wasn’t wrong either. 

“By the sound of if we’ll be better off staying. Sounds good.” Cloud also couldn’t help but think about how it would give the two of them a chance to be properly alone, too. Then he tried not to think about it because Aerith can read him so well. 

Aerith pumped her arm at the elbow and said, “Yees”. Cloud smiled, small and fond. 

“Great work, by the way,” he added. 

Aerith waved off the compliment with an arm and an “Aww, thanks,” but Cloud could tell she was pleased. “So, Cloud,” she started conversationally, “what do you want to do when this is all over?”

“All over?” he asked, “like, when the planet is safe again?”

“Exactly. I mean, you were a SOLDIER, now you’re a part-time mercenary. What do you want to do?”

Cloud was taken aback. His dreams have been pretty much destroyed. And now with everything going on, it all feels too uncertain to even think about a happy ending. Cloud told her as much as best he could, a little haltingly, not used to voicing his concerns. 

“That’s all the more reason to think about it,” she replied with calm certainty. “- to give yourself something to hope for.” 

All Cloud could think to hope for at this point is to be with Aerith. “Ok, I will think about it,” he promised her. “What about you? What will you want to do?”

“Oh,” she thought for a moment, “maybe I’ll figure out how to talk to the planet better, and I could share what I know with everyone else, so that we don’t all make the same mistakes again. Maybe I could find out how the Cetra lived. They lived in harmony with the planet.” 

“That’s…much better than anything I can think of,” Cloud said. “You’re really amazing.” 

“I have an unfair head-start,” she told him, alluding to her visions. “And you’re no slouch yourself, Cloud Strife.” Then she jumped on his back playfully, arms around his neck and bent legs on his waist, and said, “Let’s get closer to the water.” Cloud clambered to grab her legs and then jolted her up a little higher on his torso so that he had a good hold on her (though a little more than he really needed to), making her squeal and laugh. 

~

They got one lead about a guy that was in the nearby park. It was grassy and had some picnickers scattered here and there on the ground. There was a rather tall man with a ponytail and ash-blond hair, but it definitely wasn’t him. Especially considering the way the guy was eating lunch happily with his wife and kids. 

Taking a break, Cloud and Aerith leaned against a huge tree, enjoying the shade there, and looking out at the choppy water crashing against the rocks. There was a great breeze going, too. 

After a few minutes, Cloud turned and looked at Aerith. The first thing he noticed was the way she was really enjoying the view looking out at the water, and then yes, he totally checked her out in her yellow bikini. At the softness of her breasts as they peaked out of the top; at her slender stomach; at the curve of her hips. When Cloud looked back at her face, she was looking right back at him; amused and pleased. 

“Turn about’s fair play, y’know”, she warned him lightly. Then she got up from her lean on the tree and maneuvered herself right in front of him. She put a hand under her chin in a teasingly-appraising way. She stared into his eyes, then glanced over his entire face; down his neck and noting his clavicle, then down his chest and abdomen. Her silly expression slowly left her along the way. When she looked him in the face again, she dropped her hand, and the playfulness was gone – something more genuine taking its place. She moved one hand to rest on the center of his chest, and it made them both breathe out. 

“I didn’t touch you,” he pointed out, as if it wasn’t fair that he had to struggle more to maintain composure in public than she did, then berated himself for complaining. “Nevermind,” he amended quickly. 

Aerith smiled and leaned in closer. “Do you want to?”

He absolutely did, but he was very aware of the fact they would be in easy sight of anyone if they came as close to the shore as they were. “I want to kiss you,” he answered, thinking of it as a compromise. 

“You should,” she encouraged, voice lowering to something more sensual. 

Cloud dipped his head and kissed her. Slipped his tongue into her mouth a moment after. He cupped her face with one hand, and her naked waist with the other. Aerith put both of her hands against his chest now. 

As Cloud was kissing her, warmth built, solid and low in his gut, and much faster than he would have thought. It was her smile, her revealed skin, and everything that made her her. It was also the heat of the town. Something about it put him in overdrive. Made every touch and kiss more overtly sexual than sweet. And Aerith wasn’t just a sweet girl (though she was one), she was also incredibly sexy and Cloud never felt it so intently as in this moment. His mind started wandering to what Aerith looks like underneath her bathing suit. He wondered as he grasped her forearm and squeezed gently whether he could even stop at this point without jumping into the water to cool the fuck down. 

Aerith seemed to be affected just as much though, making quiet little noises that showed her need for more. 

When they parted she offered, “We can go get a room.”

Cloud moaned quietly at the suggestion. “Let’s go,” he said. 

*

Thirty minutes later, Cloud was closing the door to their room. He looked around briefly and saw that the room was small but clean. They both took off their sandals. Aerith went to the thermostat and turned the fan on as high as it would go, then ran underneath it and sighed her relief as the breeze hit her skin.

Now, he didn’t want to take the enjoyment of cooling off away from her, but Cloud knew that part of what was driving him wild was the heat. So, after a minute of her cooling herself down, Cloud noticing the goosebumps erupting on her skin, he asked, “So, do you mind if we leave the fan off for a while?”

Aerith looked at him, confused.

Cloud thought he could best explain from showing her. He strode right up to her, and kissed her passionately, arms tightly around her waist. He was definitely holding back before, and now that he was free to kiss her the way he wanted to, he kissed her deep, and touched all of her exposed skin. She responded in kind, rubbing up his arms and down his chest, then up his back and grabbing hold. 

Then Cloud moved his head back, and said, “Because, there’s something about the heat...”

“There sure is,” Aerith replies with a sexy smile. “I’m sold.” She moved away from Cloud and shut the fan off with finality. Then she turned around and leaned against the wall, giving him a look. 

Cloud walked up to her and gently pinned her to the wall, loving the way their heated skin touched. The way he felt her breasts pressed against him. Cloud kissed her again, and soon opened his mouth further to kiss her deep and thorough, and his hands slowed from the frenzied pace he used before to something more deliberate but no less intense. 

When they parted, they were both heated and dazed. Aerith asked, “We’re going to have sex right? Just to be clear.”

Understanding of her words came slowly to Cloud as he stared into her beautiful green eyes, but after a moment he registered what she said, and that from her phrasing she definitely wanted to have sex. Now, Cloud had not thought that far ahead, but he said, “Yes,” with a rough voice, as if he had. 

“Good,” she replied. “It’s better to straighten these things out early,” she explained. 

He nodded his understanding, and then kissed her again with even more heat. Then Cloud kissed down her neck, and bit at a spot behind her ear that he thought was supposed to be sensitive for some people but hadn’t thought to try before. And it was sensitive for her. She mewled her enjoyment. So he bit there again, and sucked at the spot until she pressed her body against him. 

He let go to enjoy the look of pleasure on her face, and she asked, “How did you know I was so sensitive there?”

“I just guessed.” He replied with a victorious smile. 

Next Aerith grabbed his butt firmly with both hands, with a smirk. Cloud kissed her again as she massaged his ass, and then pushed him into her so that his hard dick was pressing into her, making him gasp. Then Cloud stuck his hand between them and palmed her breast - rubbed up and down lightly. So soft. He could feel her nipple hardening as he rubbed her again and again. Aerith was gasping now. 

Cloud pulled his head back, but stayed pinned at the waist to Aerith as he next traced the strap of her bikini top, and then slid it down her shoulder slowly. He eyed the extra bit of skin that was exposed. He did the same to the other one. Then with both hands he pulled the top slowly down.

Cloud took a few moments to admire her and then kissed her again. He brought his hand up to her neck, and then down slowly to graze down one bare breast. They both gasped. He took her breast more firmly and massage it, making her back arch. He dipped his head, kissing down until he slowed and kissed the top of her breast. He grabbed her waist, then moved down slightly and kissed again, and again. When he reached his destination he kissed her nipple, making Aerith moan. He licked it next, and did it again a few times, then opened his mouth and sucked gently. Aerith put a hand gently into his hair as he continued to suck. He sucked a little harder and Aerith showed her approval by pushing his head into her chest. He gave the same attention to the other one.

When Cloud stood straight again, Aerith pushed herself off the wall, swung them around and pulled a surprised Cloud toward the bed as she walked backwards with a mischievous smile. Cloud had followed the lead of her turn, and then gotten the idea about where they were going pretty quickly and let himself be led - and then pulled on top of her. 

Cloud looked at her again – she was so beautiful. And then she grabbed him by both sides of the head and pulled him into an urgent kiss. He massaged her breast again as he kissed her, and then sucked on her other nipple until she mewled and rolled her hips. He continued lower, finally taking the biki top off properly from around her torso, and then kissing down her stomach. Cloud felt for the strings of her bikini bottoms, then curled his fingers under the strings, and tugged gently down.

“You first, cowboy!” she protested good-naturedly. “You haven’t taken anything off yet.”

Cloud smirked and said, “Do it for me?” as he sat up further.

Aerith giggled delightedly and sat up. Cloud enjoyed the way her breasts moved as she bounced. She got very close to him and sat up on her knees. Then she motioned for him to do the same. He did, and then she teased at the hem of his swimming trunks before dipping her thumbs inside. She pushed down, looking down very intently as his hips, and then more and more skin was revealed. When his straining erection bobbed free, she looked extremely interested in putting it good use. She got closer and bend forward a little to push the trunks down to his knees, where they pooled. 

Cloud was eager to give her what she wanted so he kissed her again and pushed her down on the bed gently, kicking off his shorts the rest of the way when he was over her again. Cloud leaned down, settling his hips on hers, pressing his dick against her mound, and they both groaned loudly. He rolled his hips gently against her, only one thin barrier between them, and he could feel the softness of her against him. Then again. Eager take away that last layer a moment later, he sat up again, with his fingers around the strings of her bikini bottoms again.

Cloud pulled down, and Aerith lifted her hips to help him. He was rapt. Where he was feeling hazy before, he was now all focus. He noticed the shiver of her skin, her rapid breaths, the shape of the neatly trimmed hair revealed as he continued to pull down. He wanted to spread her legs and taste her so badly. He wanted to thrust deep inside her and make her moan. He pulled the bottoms all the way off and admired her again. She had one arm was over her head, the other on her stomach as she looked back at him, pleased by his obvious desire. Her eyes raked over him as well, all playfulness gone. 

Then he put his hand on her knees, rubbed her smooth thighs up and down, and gently guided her legs apart. When he saw her slit, he immediately and he wanted to lick along it. He bend down, and kissed her inner thigh, higher and higher up her leg. He could smell her now, and it added to his desire. He stuck his tongue out and licked up her slit delicately. Aerith moaned, deep and wanting. He did it again, a little harder this time, and her lips gave way around his tongue. He mouthed against her, adding to her excitement, and she thrust her hips grind herself against his mouth and tongue. 

“Not that I don’t absolutely love what you’re doing,” she told him breathily, “but I need you inside me. Use your fingers first?” 

Cloud smiled against her as he continued, and inserted a finger slowly insider her, leaving Aerith gasping. She was so wet and warm around his finger. So inviting. When she wiggled, he added a second finger, pumping into her. 

“Cloud, I need you,” Aerith moaned. That was enough for Cloud. He positioned himself over her, between her legs. Ran his dick along her slick entrance, watching her need build, feeling his own, until he maneuvered himself so that his tip was pushing against her entrance. His nerves were on fire. He paused, inquired with an expression, looking into her eyes, to which she gave a small nod. 

Cloud pushed inside her, slow and steady, her soft warmth overtaking his senses, surrounding him, until he was fully inside her. He kissed her hard and passionate, overwhelmed with that knowledge – that they were joined. 

Aerith wrapped her arms around his neck as they kissed. Aerith is amazing. How did he get so lucky? Even if they haven’t been dating, if they were just friends, she helped Cloud see the world in a different way. A much better way than the cut-off, pain-wallowing way he trapped himself in before. Was still bogged-down in to a certain extent. But it was getting better. Because of her. 

But because they were dating – because she was his girlfriend – he felt like he could do anything. 

Cloud started moving slowly inside her, and she loosely put her legs on either side of him, partially surrounding him with her. And when he found a pace, still slow and gentle, she met it each time. As they moved together, Cloud pulled the ribbon from her thick chestnut hair, and dove his hands into the soft strands. Her hand wound up in his hair too, tugging slightly in a way that Cloud liked a lot, making him grunt. Made him kiss her deeper, too; thrust a little harder. Aerith enveloped him further into her legs, and squeezed around him more tightly, as she met the new pace. 

After some time, Aerith moved to flip them over, and Cloud followed her lead so that they both rolled until Aerith was straddling Cloud. She took a moment to balance herself, and then started rolling her hips against him. She was leaning forward as she moved, and Cloud massaged her breasts more roughly than he had been before, which made her close her eyes in her enjoyment. When he moved his hands away, she leaned forward more, until her breasts were rubbing against his chest as she moved - which he liked a lot. Then she said, “Let’s see what that spot does to you”, and sucked behind his ear. And yes, that spot definitely did do something to him. Cloud lost himself in the resulting assault on his senses. He grasped her hips to act as an anchor, and enjoyed feeling the way her hips moved. 

When Aerith sped up her pace on him he felt his orgasm building more and more. Felt how wrecked he was more and more. But he didn’t want it to end yet. Not until he thrust hard and deep into her - making her just as wrecked as him. 

When Aerith slowed down to catch her breath, Cloud positioned himself to flip her and said, “’Turnabout’s fair play’, right?” rough-voiced and smug. 

She smiled back in excitement and went,” Yeah, it is,” just as roughly.

Cloud flipped her around in a quick motion that made Aerith squeal and then laugh. When the laugh died down, Cloud thrust into her just a fast as she had been moving before, and Aerith held onto him. Then he went a little faster and deeper, making her yell out in pleasure. 

“More,” she said, and Cloud gave her more, and all Aerith could do now was hang on. “Fuck,” she said. And Cloud could feel the way she pulsed once. She must be really close. Aerith said, “That’s it, just like that,” and Cloud held the pace steady. She pulsed again. Cloud felt so close now himself and he only just managed to hold on. And then she came, pulsing hard around his cock, over and over, and he kept thrusting into her. She held him tight the whole time, and she said his name. And when those pulses slowed, Cloud let go, thrusting deep inside her and staying there. Coming the hardest he ever has in his life. 

After what must have been a full minute of them both holding onto the other tight, Cloud let go and pulled out and lay next to Aerith on his back. She immediately jumped into his arms, half on top of him, and he gladly hugged her close, kissing her on the top of the head. Then she raised her head and looked down at him and kissed him slow and deep, before cuddling back up to his chest contentedly. After a minute though she decided to turn on the fan and come back. Cloud was more than happy to have the fan on now. It was only once the air moved against his skin that he realized how sweaty they were. 

“That was amazing, Cloud,” Aerith said, finally able to speak.

“It was amazing,” he agreed. “You’re amazing, Aerith.”

“Hmm. So’r you, Cloud,” she answered sleepily. “The cuddlies, hottest, badass that’s ever been.”

Cloud laughed, and Aerith followed. “And what are you then?” he asked, thinking. “The sexy Cetra?”

Aerith laughed. “Well, yours isn’t funny like mine, but it is very flattering, so I’ll take it.” 

“Fine, the ‘silliest, sexiest, Cetra’,” he amended. 

“No, no, I’ll take the first one,” Aerith said with a smile. 

They lapsed into a comfortable silence after that. Cloud had thought he felt at peace at her side before, but now, this was something else. Something that went deep into his soul. They stayed that way for a long time. 

Until both of their phones buzzed. 

They looked at each other, then each grabbed their own phone and read.

Tifa: So…Hojo is here!! Relaxing on the main beach.   
Tifa: Meet me at the shaved ice stand where the boardwalk meets the beach. 

Cloud started typing immediately.

Cloud: Coming. Don’t let him see you.  
Tifa: Duh.  
Barret: That motherfuck on vacation?!   
Barret: Almost there.

Cloud started getting dressed as Aerith sent her own confirmation that she was on the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is a full chapter following Cloud and Zack in the badlands around Midgar!


	3. Badlands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter follows Cloud and Zack through the Badlands of Midgar (Explicit content).

Cloud was sat leaning contentedly against Zack, who was leaning against a tree. He enjoyed the solid feel of him against his back and the feel of his muscled arm wrapped around his waist. Zack’s other hand was playing idly with Cloud’s, both hands twining and untwining – gentle grazes. 

They were almost to the Badlands now - the forest was getting sparser and sparser. Cloud could tell that Zack was getting excited about that – he was sure things would go much better for them once they go to Midgar, and it made Cloud excited too. Zack is such a bright light in the darkness. 

Cloud always had a crush on Zack. They had been on a few missions together before everything, and whenever he talked with him he felt like they understood each other. And it always made Cloud feel lighter than air. 

Cloud had also looked up to him as a SOLDIER. He was one of the best. And the kind of guy that would go out of his way to help someone that needed it. The absolute best guy he ever met. 

Then Zack went and saved him – really saved him. Rescued him from something so horrible he dare not think about it. And has continued to help him every day, while Cloud had been sitting there like a potato. And Zack had a smile ready for him every day, too. A smile that blew Cloud away every time, and made him feel like everything was going to be ok. 

Then they really opened up to each other - out here in the forest. 

Cloud doesn’t have the strength of will to put on airs - it takes everything he has just to push through the haze, making him feel vulnerable and unable to hide his emotions the way that people normally do. 

It makes him gruff sometimes, but it also means that when Zack makes him happy he has no way to hide it. Zack seemed to recognize that honesty and responded in kind. Told Cloud more about how hard it’s been for him out here. Cloud also saw the way that Zack’s optimism and positive attitude were real and innate parts of him. That keep shining through again and again. 

Cloud was falling for him - hard. 

“So,” Zack asked Cloud, still playing with his hand, “if everything had gone like how it was supposed to back then, and we went back Midgar, and we became great friends, and then I asked you on a date, what you have said?” 

Cloud heard the smile in his voice. “When would you have asked?” Cloud asked back, a smile on his lips himself. 

“Hmmm,” Zack made a show of thinking as Cloud turned more to look at him, “Two years later. I would have been giving you advice on dating for the past two years at that point, and then realized – ‘man, I should be dating Cloud! What have I been thinking!’” Zack smacked himself in the forehead like he was berating himself. 

Cloud laughed openly, then said, “It actually doesn’t matter when. I would have said yes.” 

Zack took in his expression, and then kissed him. 

The kiss started out with all the sweetness of the moment, then quickly turned more and more heated – been building for days between them, Cloud realized – and Zack pulled up Cloud’s shirt and rubbed at his chest – his abs. Cloud twisted his body so that he could kiss Zack and lay back against him at the same time, stretching his torso. It all gave Cloud a raw feeling – low in his gut. Zack bit Cloud’s lip. 

He took Zack’s hand and pushed it lower down his body. Under the waistband of his pants, making them both gasp a little. He held his hand there without much pressure, to see if he would pull it back. 

Zack grazed his fingers over the skin there instead, adding to that raw feeling of Cloud’s. He pushed Zack’s hand down further slowly, until he was brushing over his dick. Cloud gasped at the feeling, and Zack groaned his name, giving Cloud goosebumps. 

Zack wrapped his hand around him lightly, prompting an “ahhhh” from Cloud, and asked, “Can I?”

Cloud nodded, heat filling his face, and then his whole body. And he started kissing Zack again. Zack grasped his cock more firmly, and pumped his hand, and everything fell away for Cloud but the two of them. He loved it when everything else could just fall away. 

Zack opened his pants and pulled him out. Cloud looked at the way Zack’s hand moved over his dick, and the sight of it just made him harder. He lay his head back against his chest, groaning too much to kiss anymore, and Zack started sucking on his neck. Cloud could feel Zack’s erection against his lower back, adding to his excitement. 

Cloud need more and moved his hips erratically, threw his arm over his head to grab onto Zack. And then he came. And it was so good. So good he couldn’t move for a while after, making Zack laugh and hug him tight. 

As he took in more of the world around him, he realized he could still feel Zack hard against his back. And now that he could think, he couldn’t wait to do the same thing for him. 

~

Zack walked arm over arm with Cloud toward Midgar. It was slow going. Really slow going. Sun beating down. Cracked earth beneath their feet. Limbs so, so heavy. 

Cloud was sinking back into a Mako-haze, seeing and reacting to nothing. Well, at least it seemed like the type where he could at least keep walking. And Zack was healed just enough to walk at a stumble. 

Shit. He nearly died back there. Gave it his all against the fucking shitton of soldiers sent against them - he lost count of how many it was - but it wasn’t enough. He slowed down, and they were coming from too many directions to react too anymore. Then, when Zack was sure he was about to get pumped full of bullets from behind, Cloud exploded out of the haze he was in and fucking obliterated the rest of them. He’d never been so socked and relieved in his life, and he fell over onto his back in his exhaustion. 

Cloud healed him, too. And he was so, so worried for him - and it warmed Zack’s heart. He could tell in the way he checked him over, with shaking hands and his eyebrows all scrunched. When Zack was able to sit up, Cloud hugged him hard, which hurt but Zack didn’t mind that too much, and he hugged him back. 

Then they gathered some supplies from some of the scattered packs lying around and started walking. Zack wondered if he knew any of the soldiers lying on the ground. He probably did. But their faces were covered by their helmets and he didn’t really want to know anyway. He’s had about all he can take. 

They were walking for about thirty minutes when he saw them, the black wisps surrounding the two of them. Three dark ghostly figures. They were there at the end of that fight too, he remembered now. 

They were disappearing and reappearing a few moments later as they floated around. Zack sat down to take a rest, and Cloud slid down, too. The wisps didn’t do anything but float around them so he decided to leave it alone for now. He was exhausted. 

He drank some water from his canteen and passed it to Cloud, wondering if he was gunna be able to take it from him and drink. He did. 

“Hey,” Zack called to Cloud once Cloud took a long drink from the canteen. Cloud didn’t seem to hear him at first, and Zack was resigning himself to a lonely walk, but then Cloud turned to him. And looked him in the eye. Great! Zack was feeling more hopeful that Cloud would be able to hold a conversation. 

“Yea,” Cloud answered. Zack could see the effort it was taking for him to focus. 

“We’re almost there now. It’s just a bit farther. Just a small break now, then we’ll keep going.” He tried to keep some of the pain out of his voice. 

Cloud examined the hunched way Zack was sitting, and the way he was favoring his left side by tilting one way. “Will you be ok?”

“Thanks to you, yeah,” he replied with a reassuring smile. “What about you?”

“Yeah,” he answered without hesitation. 

Zack looked around for any Soldiers, trucks, or helicopters for them to worry about; and found nothing but wisps moving benignly around them. 

Cloud did the same and that was when Cloud noticed the wisps for the first time himself. He startled badly and got to his feet quickly, yelling “What the fuck?!” pulling his gun and aiming at the one most directly in front of him. And they were off-putting weren’t they? Soldiers were trained to kill monsters, sure. But these things were like if monsters and ghosts had babies. 

“Yeah, so they’ve been following us for a while,” Zack explained. “Don’t seem to want to hurt us, though.”

Cloud retrained his aim every few seconds as they moved around anyway. “Well, maybe not so far,” he answered, not convinced he should be putting his gun down. 

“Let’s just start walking and you’ll see what I mean,” suggested Zack.

Cloud took a moment to think about it, then said, “Ok.” 

“Ok, let’s mosey,” Zack said with forced casualness and stood up. He put his arm around Cloud as he holstered his gun, and once Cloud did the same they were supporting each other once again. Then Zack leaned in carefully, since every move he made still hurt like hell, and kissed Cloud on the temple. Cloud’s eyes softened some as he looked back at him. Then they continued on. 

As they walked, a few more wisps showed up around them. After a while, a few more. They continued to appear peaceful, except that their circles around the pair started running tighter and tighter. Which come to think of it, was starting to be concerning. 

Zack stopped to look at them, and Cloud followed suit. “They’re getting a bit close. Are they corralling us?” Cloud wondered.

“I don’t know. It’s making me nervous, too,” Zack replied. We’ll it was nearly total dark at this point, except for the light coming from Midgar. They should stop for the day anyway. “Let’s make camp for the night,” Zack declared.

Cloud agreed. They watched the wisps critically as they sorted through their packs. Their circle around them got looser again, before they disappeared. Zack supposed that had to be enough. There was no wood for a fire in the badlands so they ate the meal bars Zack took from those packs, before passing out soon after from exhaustion. As he did, Zack spooned himself around Cloud, the air now cool, with their desert camouflage cover as a blanket. The other side of the cover was green for forest camouflage and was used so often this past year – its color fading some by now from being hit so often by the sun. 

When they awoke the next morning, they were both feeling much better than the day before – their Mako enhancements doing their work. Cloud even smiled at him, which gave Zack the unignorable impulse to kiss him soundly. Then Zack remembered how unusual it was that Cloud would even be alert right now and kissed him again. 

They put everything away and started their way again to Midgar. After only a few minutes of walking (unaided, thank you), the first wisps showed up. Within the hour, there were more of them – ten total – and they were pressed more closely to the pair than ever before. The situation was starting to feel foreboding. 

“What do you want!” Zack yelled to them, irritated. They didn’t answer. Zack and Cloud shared glances. Zack started getting more and more on guard as they continued to their destination. 

After another thirty minutes, Zack started to feel some sort of light resistance to his movements. Now they were trying to slow him down??!! What the fuck!! Zack saw red. He and Cloud have gone too far to be stopped now – goddamnit! 

Now, Zack could see the humor in most situations, even when facing down a shitton of soldiers. But having just done exactly that the day before - and on top of that now, this thing with the wisps was too weird, too much. “Cloud,” he called.

Cloud looked back at him, concern written on his face from his tight voice. “Alright there?”

“They’re trying to slow me down.” Cloud’s expression turned questioning. “I take it the same isn’t happening to you then?”

“No. Should we stop?”

“Nope,” Zack said, resolute. 

Cloud looked doubtful but kept moving. “Maybe we should fight them. Are they even solid?” he wondered. 

“No clue. But maybe this is the most they can do. I can make it into town like this. If it’s gets any worse, though, then we attack.”

It turns out, it wasn’t the most they could do. A few minutes later, it felt like heavy weights were wrapped around his arms and legs. He’d start to get winded at this rate, damn. His anger was passed, but now he’s moved on to real concern. 

Zack sighed heavily. “Alright, let’s show these things they have to knock it off,” he told Cloud as he pulled his sword from the harness. 

“Finally,” Cloud replied, taking out his gun. He took a shot. Zack’s heart dropped. It was like shooting smoke. It went right though. The thing didn’t seem hurt either. 

Zack sliced through one with his sword, cast Fire on another. Nothing. “Ghaah!” he said in frustration. He tried a few more spells that he had on hand. None of them had any effect. On the plus side, if there is one, they didn’t attack either of them either. Just kept floating merrily around. “Let’s keep going,” Zack said in irritation. 

Cloud put a hand on his shoulder, and told Zack, “Don’t let them get to you. I could tie a 300 pound boulder to your ankle and you would still make it.”

Zack couldn’t help but smile at the fact that Cloud was trying to make him feel better. And yeah, he was right. He could do this. “Of course I would,” he replied, feeling more like himself. 

They reached one point, though, about two miles from Midgar, where Zack could not go any farther. Zack tried to move his legs forward, but they were stuck to the ground. Cloud, who had been helping him walk now, arms around each other, was looking distinctly concerned now as well – face set, and brows knit together. “I can’t take a step,” Zack told him. 

Cloud disentangled himself from him and looked at his legs as if that would help him figure things out. 

Zack experimentally took a step backwards. “Lighter than air,” he commented. “Well, I can go away from Midgar, but not toward it.” 

“Let’s make camp, try again early in the morning,” Cloud urged. 

Zack was beyond dejected, and at least a little panicked. They’ve been out here long enough. On the run long enough. 

If Cloud can go to the safety of anonymity inside the city, then that’s what he needs to do, with or without Zack at his side. “Go on, Cloud,” he urged him. “I’ll catch up when I can.”

Cloud’s face fell. “What? No,” he said with finality. “We can try again tomorrow, and it that doesn’t work, we’ll fall back. Go someplace else. I’m not the dead weight I used to be.”

Cloud thinking of himself as a burden up until now hurt his heart. “You’re two miles away, Cloud. Go, be a mercenary, make us some money, and wait for me.”

“And if you can’t get there?” he asked, clearly unconvinced, and worried that Zack suggested it in the first place. 

“I’ll try making myself scarce around Kalm, and if than doesn’t work, then Junon. It’ll be easy enough by myself.” Cloud opened his mouth, but Zack cut him off. “But that does not make you a burden. Never were. Do you hear me?” he asked, imploringly.

Cloud paused then didn’t answer. “I’m saying I can go to Kalm with you, and on to Junon, without zoning out so much that we get caught.”

“I’m sorry, but because I’m so recognizable, you definitely might zone out too much for us to recover from. Remember, I’ve been with you every day for the past year, and I have the training to know the risks involved. At least if you zone out in the slums of Midgar the people around you will either walk right over you or help you out. Better than being reported to Shinra.”

Cloud sat down heavily on the ground, obvious feelings of guilt pouring out of him. Zack sat down behind him, legs around him, and pulled him into his chest, keeping his arms around him. Zack closed his eyes, and focused on the feel of him, the warmth of him. Cloud placed his arms over Zack’s. They stayed like that for a long time, saying nothing, until Zack eventually felt calm enough to say, “If I don’t come to Midgar, if these monster ghosts don’t let me, then take on jobs, and lay low for a while. Maybe a few months. Until you don’t zone out anymore. Then come find me. Ok? I don’t want to leave you. But we have to go our own way for a while.”

Cloud let out a quiet sob, then another, that Zack felt through his chest, and in his heart. Zack started crying too, and hugged Cloud closer to him. 

“Ok.” Cloud said, quietly, at length. “I don’t want to leave you either, but Ok. I get it.” 

“Cloud,” Zack breathed out. 

Cloud turned around in his hold and held his gaze. Then he leaned in, tilted his head up, and kissed Zack. The kiss was loving and agonized and desperate, and Zack returned it. Cloud turned around all the way and crawled into Zack’s lap, deepening the kiss. Pushing his tongue into his mouth as he put his hands on either side of his neck. Cloud was incredible. 

Cloud moved away slightly, undid Zack’s harness and took off his shirt, and Zack lifted his arms to help. When their lips crashed back together Cloud felt along his chest with heavy motions. 

Zack wanted to feel his chest against his. He pulled apart Cloud’s harness and yanked his shirt off, too. Hauled him against him so that their chests were flush together. The day was hot and so was Cloud’s skin. Cloud pushed Zack down onto the ground and Zack smiled into his mouth. He ran his hands over all the skin he could reach. Then he widened his legs so that Cloud would settle between them, and grabbed his butt, massaging the muscles. 

Was this a farewell? Was it a vent of frustration? Was it a celebration that Cloud’s been more aware in the past 24 hours than Zack has seen before? Was it a demonstration of how they felt about each other while they still had the chance? Maybe it was all of that. 

And Zack did care about him. As a friend, as a comrade, as a…boyfriend? Were they boyfriends? It felt like what they had was something more than casual to both of them. Cloud was kind, and stubborn, and brave, and something more than that Zack didn’t know the words for. 

And then he thought to himself, ‘but someone couldn’t be your boyfriend or girlfriend unless you ask first’. Then why not say something about it now?

“Be my boyfriend, Cloud?” he asked in a rough voice. 

Cloud looked back at him, surprised by the question. Then he started searching his eyes, and when he was satisfied he said, quiet and rough, “Yeah, Zack,” and kissed him again. 

Zack flipped them over, and sucked on Cloud’s neck, making him moan. 

In his peripheral vision he could see that the wisps have disappeared again. Maybe knowing that they would get what they wanted if they just left the two of them the fuck alone for a while. 

Zack bit a column up his throat, and Cloud arched his neck and turned his head to the side to give him better access. He tried sucking behind Cloud’s ear – he’s had luck with the move before. With Aerith. Cloud groaned loud and pulled him in around the neck, as if to say, ‘more, more.’ Zack sucked harder and Cloud bucked against him, both of their straining erections pressing together making Cloud moan and Zack growl. 

Cloud rolled his hips again, more deliberately this time. Zack started thrusting against him too, kissing him again. Then Cloud slid a hand between them and undid Zack’s belt buckle. He looked back at Zack. His eyes were so clear and focused. And wanting. And sexy as fuck. 

He pulled Zack’s dick out and started stroking it. Nice and slow. After a few moments, Zack moved to lay on his side and Cloud did the same as he continued to pump him. Zack opened Cloud’s pants and took him in hand, too. And this was deliciously familiar. They spent some evenings this way, sometimes slow and unhurried, sometimes fast and urgent. 

But something was different about this. When things were slow, Cloud usually had a more languid expression on his face, but right now the intensity that he looked at Zack with was all-consuming. He was wearing a ‘fuck-me’ look, that he probably didn’t even know he was using. That look shot through Zack’s whole body. 

Cloud moved to lean over Zack then, and took his pants and underwear off together. Zack sat up next, feeling the change in atmosphere. It was something powerful. It had Zack’s heart hammering hard in his chest. He took Cloud’s pants and underwear off, too, with Cloud helping him. Then they were both standing on their knees fully naked together like this for the first time. Cloud kissed him, and it was charged and deliberate and hungry. 

Zack pushed Cloud back gently and settled between his legs. Let their cocks press together and Zack had to close his eyes from the feel of it. He rocked against him and Cloud looked almost pained from the pleasure of it. “Cloud,” he said, full of emotion. Kissed him again. He trailed his hand up his side, down his leg, over his butt. 

“Zack, I want to be with you,” Cloud whispered against his lips, sliding his hand up the side of his face. 

Zack smiled at him lovingly. “Tell me what you want, Cloud.”

“I want you…in me.”

The words sent a thrill of pleasure through Zack. “I want you so much, Cloud.”

But, he had to say, “But, is it too fast? We’ve been taking things slower ‘til now...and I know things are uncertain. I just want to make sure…”

Cloud struggled for words, then said, “There’s no way I’m walking away from you without showing you how I feel. Yeah, it’s faster than we would have went on our own. It doesn’t mean I don’t really want to. Things changed. We’re adapting.”

Zack laughed at the way he turned soldier training on its head. “When you’re right your right,” he told him fondly. Then, with that decided, he thought he turn up the heat, and said, “I’m gunna do you so good it’ll last you ‘til we meet again.”

A blush bloomed on Cloud’s face that showed through his already sun-flushed skin as he looked back at him. 

“You’re so, so cute,” Zack told him. “Just a sec,” he said next, and went to rummage through his pack for some lotion. He noticed Cloud eyeing him up as he kneeled, rummaging - and smiled rakishly at him in return. When he found it he placed it beside Cloud and settled on top of him where he was before. Cloud eyed the tube and flushed deeper still. 

“Ok?” he asked. This had to be his first time. Cloud’s had no company besides Zack since he was 16 years old, let alone the opportunity to date.

“Yeah,” Cloud says back, sure, and kisses him sweetly. Zack slides his hand down his side again, and to his ass when Cloud raised his leg to rest against his side. Then Zack trailed his fingers passed his cheeks, and rubbed gently against his hole. Cloud’s breath quickened. Zack wasn’t breathing at all. He kept rubbing gently until Cloud’s arms loosed the tight hold he had on his biceps. 

He sucked behind Cloud’s ear again, making his squirm and moan. Then he got the lotion and coated his fingers with it while Cloud watched intently. When Zack was done, he sucked on the crook of Cloud’s neck now as his slick fingers ran easy circles over his hole. Then he pressed his middle finger in just a bit, and then a little more as he kissed him deep. Further and further until his finger was inside him all the way. “Ok?” he asked. 

Cloud nodded and grunted in the affirmative. 

“In just a few minutes, you’ll be pushing back against my fingers,” Zack promised seductively. 

“Confident as always,” Cloud answered fondly and flustered. 

Zack smiled as he began pumping his finger slowly in and out of him. Then kissed him again when he added a second finger. He stroked with his fingers, then stretched him more, patiently. 

He was good and stretched now. Zack crooked his fingers searchingly into him, trying a few different ways, until a whine escaped Cloud’s throat. 

“Got you,” he teased. 

“Keep doing that,” Cloud breathed. And Zack did keep doing that, but not too quickly and not too directly. Cloud was panting now, a sheen of sweat over his entire body, and it wasn’t long until he was rolling his hips against his fingers. 

“Told you,” he said playfully with a smile. 

“You won’t see me complaining,” Cloud breathed. 

“No, but I’ll see you coming,” Zack countered.

Cloud moaned loud and long. “I won’t complain then either.” 

Zack groaned at the thought of turning Cloud into a wreck, the scene playing out in his mind. “Now I can’t wait to see it,” he informed him and pulled out his fingers. 

Cloud watched him when Zack moved to sit back and then guided Cloud’s pliant legs to spread wide. 

Zack wanted this to be so good for him. He leaned forward, took Cloud’s dick in his hand and gave him a few slow strokes that Cloud thrust right back against. When he let go, he positioned his tip at Cloud’s hole. He looked at Cloud and saw the want and love in his gaze. Then he pushed his tip in, and felt Cloud’s inviting tight heat, and huffed out a breath. 

Cloud had a complicated expression on his face. The want was still there; now accompanied with uncertainty, and stubbornness not to show that uncertainty. What Cloud needed was a pleasant distraction from the newness. Zack grasped his cock again and stroked him long and slow. He started thrusting shallowly into Cloud, making slow progress into him as he continued to stroke him, until he was fully seated inside him - Cloud’s expression easing as he went. “You feel so good,” he told him gently, then leant down and kissed him. 

Zack rocked his hips into him in a slow rhythm while they held each other close. Within a few minutes Cloud was panting again, and Zack was loving the way he made him feel that way. He picked up speed, trying a few different angles, and then Cloud moaned so erotically, right into his ear, that Zack could have come just from hearing it. “Shit, Cloud.” He kept it up, making Cloud moan over and over. 

“Zack,” he breathed. Then he started thrusting back against Zack, first to match him, then even more aggressively, encouraging Zack to catch up. They were both groaning loudly now. Zack occasionally snapped his hips hard into him, making him louder still. 

Zack was starting to lose it, pace stuttering and off-rhythm as he kissed Cloud sloppily, until they managed to get back in sync. Zack sat up some and started pumping Cloud’s cock in time with his thrusts. “Gunna make you come,” he told Cloud, and Cloud groaned. 

Zack thrust faster into Cloud, watching his face screw up tighter and tighter until Cloud came hard, spilling over his hand, groaning so loud, as Zack kept thrusting into him. Zack loved the look on his face as he came. He kept repeating it in his mind over and over as he came a minute later, burying himself in Cloud. Came so much. And then he lowered himself down and kissed Cloud deeply. 

They stayed cuddled up together under the camouflage cover for hours after. Just feeling each other’s skin; holding each other close. Committing it all to memory. 

Zack wanted to tell Cloud he would miss him. And he would – miss him so damn much. But he wanted to keep it positive for both their sakes. “When we meet up again, I’ll take you on a real date,” Zack said suddenly. Well, it seemed sudden because of how long they hadn’t been talking. 

Cloud looked at him with an open expression, full of joy and hurt, and said, “It’s a date.” It sounded like a promise. 

~

Zack gave him his buster sword. Cloud protested, but Zack insisted that he needed it more than him. Zack would keep his materia and take Cloud’s gun. That would make them even, he reasoned. Thankfully, at length, Cloud agreed. 

When they were ready, Zack watched as Cloud walked toward Midgar. Until he couldn’t see him anymore. And then for a while after that, he watched the spot in the distance where he stopped seeing that little navy blue dot.

Then he tried to take a step forward, to Midgar. He couldn’t. He tried a few more times and then decided it was a no-go. He turned and walked toward Kalm, and the steps were light and easy. 

~

When Zack reached Kalm, he managed to blend in pretty well. But a flurry of Shinra activity in the area made him real nervous. They seemed pretty distracted with organizing troops and goods, but the town was still small, so not the greatest cover. So on to Junon it was then.

And Junon was a better fit. Big enough to really blend in, and more options for odd-jobs and merc work. One job was for a guy that oozed of social unrest. When Zack subtly let on how unhappy he was with Shinra, the guy revealed he was in Avalanche and that how it was bigger than Shinra realized. 

Now, Zack knew he needed to keep his head down, but he also knew that being part of a group could provide him some safety. It all depended on the group itself. How organized they were; what their goals were. He might even be willing to share insider info, or help them strategize, but he was not about raid Shinra depots and shit. 

So he met the Junon cell leaders, and some of them were former Shinra themselves. They tried hard to get him onboard and Zack agreed to at least talk with them more.

It actually snowballed from there. Zack felt their need for change, their recognition of what Shinra was (that Zack knew first-hand himself). He saw how desolate the areas around mako reactors were. And Zack started to think that their core mission may be right. Zack wound up in the middle of strategy meetings, and started talking to leaders from other cells on the phone, too.

It was on one of those calls that they wondered if they could gain sympathy from Rocket Town. Maybe they could make fuel for Avalanche, and explosives, and they didn’t even know what kind of vehicles might be there. 

Zack volunteered to go, along with another Avalanche member, and see what kind of deal they could make. 

He didn’t forget about Cloud. In fact, he thought about him constantly. Wondered how he was doing. Was he finding work? 

Worrying that, instead, he was just sitting there on the streets of Midgar, looking like a washed-out SOLDIER mako-junkie to everyone that passed by. 

It was a tough call, but he didn’t ask any favors of the Midgar Avalanche. One, because he was the new guy and didn’t have much pull for something like that. And two, he didn’t know fuck-all about them in Midgar and therefore didn’t trust them enough to keep an eye on him, or even know about him. 

So, before he left for Rocket Town, he said he needed a few days and went off on his own to Midgar. They even leant him a car. He figured if he could find Cloud he could take him back to Junon with him, and along to Rocket Town if he was up to it. 

But, just as he feared, about five miles out from Midgar those things appeared. And about two miles from Midgar, the car got stuck. Weirdly stuck – not in a natural way from the sand or anything. It just didn’t go forward anymore. He kept trying for a while but then he headed back, dejected. 

~

Zack came back from Rocket Town feeling pretty good about how things went. They had to work out the logistics of transport, but they agreed on a supply of fuel at-cost for as long as Avalanche had the Gil. Zack thought once they had that going, he could work on getting them some helicopters. 

But all of that left his head when he strode into Junon HQ, which was uncommonly crowded, and absolutely everyone was talking about Midgar. 

Something about a huge assault on Shinra tower, and the president killed. He heard someone else mention how the Sector 7 plate crashed down. 

Zack was immediately on high alert. Was Cloud alright? Not knowing where he was was killing him. He settled for jumping into the crowd and demanding more details. 

Apparently two mako reactors were blown to hell, too – thanks to a small team in Avalanche. Shit, he sent Cloud into a warzone. Zack was kicking himself for not bringing him with him now. It turns out they would have been alright here in Junon anyway. Zack just had no way to know that at the time. 

There was a Midgar news program on in the background, but Zack couldn’t get anything useful out it besides the sheer panic of the citizens, and Shinra brass’ efforts at calming everyone down and blaming Avalanche for the assassination while calling for unity against them. 

The news program flashed footage about the previous attacks on the reactors. Apparently they got the Avalanche members on video. 

And holy fucking shit did Zack almost have a heart attack when he saw a clip of Cloud fucking Strife mouthing off to President Shinra. 

Is that what you call laying low, Cloud?! Really?!

Zack had to laugh, a little in amusement and a little in sheer helplessness, as they next showed Cloud and two others decimate some huge, gigantic mech. Then the newscaster says President Rufus Shinra confirmed their involvement at the Shinra tower as well, and then label them as extremely dangerous. 

Ok, that part isn’t as funny. Like not at all, actually. Because now Shinra has an eye out for Cloud, too. 

Why did he waltz into Shina tower like that? It didn’t add up. On the plus side though, Cloud was not lying in the gutter somewhere. Is that really a plus though? Where is he now? Zack asks around, but no one knows where that small unit wound up. 

Ok, he would keep his ear real close to the ground and just wait. It’s all he could do at this point. All of this happened a few days ago, they should get some word soon. 

~

Zack is really bad at waiting. Every muscle in his body is poised to just fucking do something. But rushing off to Midgar at this point would be stupid. So he kept himself busy and waited for information. 

News came to them a little over a two weeks later that the group got itself to Kalm, and were heading on to Junon. Apparently the Kalm cell didn’t think to mention it to Junon until now. Something about them not having a need to know – cells intentionally work with limited information after all. Well, Zack needed to know! 

They also mentioned in the same conversation that the call to be on the lookout for Sephiroth (which Zack dismissed as beyond ridiculous since he first heard it), was actually made by Cloud’s team. That shook Zack real bad, and made Zack feel an even greater urgency to find Cloud now. 

But, Junon, that’s exactly where Zack was! 

Ok, Cloud was alive. That was big news, and a huge relief. 

But then, when Zack thought about the timing, if Cloud was coming to Junon, he should have been here by now. Junon is actually kind of big, and if they weren’t making contact with Avalanche specifically then Zack could easily miss him. 

Zack would like to think that Cloud was looking for him as well. He told him his game plan after all. But he didn’t want to leave it to chance. 

Zack walked around Junon all day. And then when he went to the port, everyone was talking about the big parade for Rufus that happened yesterday. Oh, yeah. 

Hmm, big events were good cover. He asked around and some people saw a group that had people in to with the description of the three he knew.

So, he checked all over Junon already, and if they weren’t there they might have taken a ship to somewhere else. A little asking let him know that all regular activity was shut down for the day yesterday - all except for Rufus’s ship. Did…could they have stowed away? 

Once he found out the ship was heading for Costa del Sol, he was already planning his way there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Zack catches up with the team!


	4. Costa del Sol, Business District: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud, Zack, and Aerith meet again for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and kudos!

They were tackling some merc jobs before heading out to Mt. Corel – three finished and one to go. They were in their normal clothes, prepared for a fight. The tipster was in the business district of Costa Del Sol, further inland, and Cloud just got paid for job number three, Aerith with him. 

They tucked away down a side street for a few minutes, before they had to meet up with everyone else, and Cloud took the opportunity to give Aerith a present that caught his eye. He pulled it out of his pocket. A necklace, with a design carved into a smoothed green stone. 

“I thought you might like this. They said it’s a design from the Ancients,” and Cloud knew that was very likely not an authentic design, but he hoped she would like the idea that it could be, and that it might be a connection to her heritage. 

She took it and examined it closely, and when she looked back at him Aerith’s expression held such open exuberance. “Thank you,” she said, sincerely. “You know how I’ve been feeling lonely at the thought of being the only Cetra. This was, extremely thoughtful of you.” She held it to her heart. 

When Aerith first told him about this feeling of loneliness, it stirred something in Cloud, though he didn’t know the words. Maybe he was a little lonely, too. “I think, I can understand that feeling,” he said. 

Cloud was enamored with her expression, her words, – with her. With the way she made him feel a little less like a SOLDIER that didn’t deserve this kind of closeness. He leaned in and gently placed his hand on her arm. He wished he wasn’t wearing gloves just then, so that he could feel her skin. 

Her expression changed into something like wonder. She was probably reading him like an open book. She often could. He could tell by the things she said to him, gentle words or teasing quips that cut to his soul. But he didn’t know what exactly what it was that she saw – because why would she think kindly of him if she could see all of that uncertainty and self-doubt? 

Aerith gave Cloud a kiss, and his whole body was tingling, and he felt light headed. Cloud moved his lips against hers, and he thought he never felt so much affection in his life. Except – that it reminded him of something he couldn’t quite remember. Enough of the past right now – especially when the present was so amazing. 

~

Zack saw the group talking earnestly in the middle of the business district. He noted the way the others looked to Cloud for his approval, and the nods of their heads when he offered something up. His expression was serious. Composed. Grown-up, he supposed. Every bit the SOLDIER he knew Cloud always wanted to be. The leader of a unique splinter cell of Avalanche, at that. HQ has resigned itself to taking a hands-off approach with them, while looking on eagerly at what they might do next.

He was so proud of him, now that he wasn’t out of his mind worried for him. Cloud was still wearing the buster sword on his back. He was glad. It made him feel connected to him even though Zack wasn’t able to go with him. 

Aerith was there, too. Aerith! He was taken aback when he saw her and didn’t know how she got tied up in Avalanche. Looking at her now, she was as energetic and heartfelt as ever. Smiling with the other girl there, giving Cloud a teasing look. Maybe that’s what it was that brought her in - her heart. Maybe when Shinra dropped that plate she couldn’t hang back and do nothing. ‘Could she fight though?’ Zack wondered. 

What are the odds that two of his favorite people would find each other like that? 

Zack turned his attention back to Cloud, all of the emotion of the past weeks coming to a heads, and he immediately knew he couldn’t wait to make his move any longer. He missed him. Flew right out of Junon to chase after him. 

And nothing stopped him from doing so, to his immense relief. No wisps to drag his steps. He never knew their intentions – to keep him out of Midgar or away from Cloud or something else – but it didn’t matter right now. He struggled not to grin like a goof in public, settled on a smaller smile as he approached his boy. 

~

A SOLDIER was approaching them. First Class. He had a big sword, just like Cloud favored. Cloud trained an eye on him, not knowing if he was friendly. Could work for Shinra. Or not. There were plenty of Shinra defectors like Cloud. Could be someone looking for a merc to team up with on a mission, a member of Avalanche, or a bounty hunter hoping to give them to Shinra for a good price. 

The SOLDIER looked back at him as he walked over with an easygoing demeanor and a smile that made Cloud’s heart beat a little faster, though that didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat. 

A hurt expression came over the man’s handsome face as he took in the way Cloud was looking at him. 

‘What?’ Cloud thought. Tifa’s told him he needs to look more approachable if they wanted to get work, but they also had to be careful.

Aerith gasped deeply beside him. 

Cloud glanced to her and then back at the SOLDIER. She was visibly shocked. “Who is it?” Cloud prompted her, a breath away from raising his arm to grasp the hilt of his sword. 

“Zack,” she breathed. 

He seemed to have heard them, though he was still a distance away. Zack stopped for a moment, looking at each of them in turn as if he didn’t know how to proceed. 

Aerith took off at a run, then stopped right in front of Zack. Zack looked really happy to see her, and taking her in he said, “Aerith”. 

Her ex or something - Cloud remembered now her ex’s name was Zack, and he was a SOLDIER. 

Now, Cloud knew Aerith was really good at reading people, but he didn’t know or trust him, and they were too close together for Cloud’s comfort. He grasped his sword as a warning, and Zack noted it before looking back at Aerith. 

“He doesn’t remember me,” Zack said to her, pained. 

“Did you two know each other?” she asked concerned. 

Zack let out a huff of air. “Yeah.”

“What happened to you, Zack Fair? It’s been five years,” Aerith asked with sincerity, as if she could tell that he’s been through something terrible. 

Zack struggled with what to say as Cloud started to come over himself, hands once again at his sides. 

“Cloud?” Tifa asked.

“Stay here,” he told the group calmly over his shoulder. 

“Zack’s a good person,” Tifa told Cloud, making him turn around.

“You met him then?” Cloud asked, confused. 

“Yeah,” Tifa answered. “I don’t think he’s a threat,” she offered, though didn’t say how she knew him. Well, Cloud didn’t have time to ask. He nodded his understanding, turned back around and continued walking. 

Zack started telling Aerith as he walked, “A helluva lot, actually.”

“I’ve gathered that much,” she said.

“And I’ll tell you, but not in the open.” Then he turned to Cloud, and said good-naturedly, “You could cut metal with that glare of yours, Cloud. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

“That’s what the look is for. So I don’t have to remind you,” Cloud shot back.

Zack laughed, a little bewildered, and looked him in the eye searchingly, then sighed in resignation. “I’ll need to talk to you too, Cloud.”

Cloud looked confusedly back at him. What did his sob story have to do with him? He had his own shit to deal with. 

“The three of us then,” Aerith cut in, in what Cloud sensed was her attempt at fixing a social failure on his part. “We’ll go to the hotel.” Aerith led the way. 

“Don’t worry Cloud”, Aerith said as they walked, taking his arm when he caught up, “Your glare also says, ‘Don’t mess with my friends’,” she told him, giving the quote a slightly mock-serious tone, “which is a commendable quality”. Then she turned around to face Zack for a moment, giving him a look Cloud couldn’t really see and then looked forward again. 

Cloud gave her a small smile at her words. 

“I have some information to give you all, too, from Avalanche. Maybe we could meet up with the rest of your group afterward and I’ll tell you all together.”

Cloud nodded without looking back at him and went to tell the others to meet back in while. 

~

The three sat in awkward silence in Cloud and Aerith’s room for a few minutes. Aerith and Cloud on the side of the bed and Zack on a chair that he moved to sit opposite them. 

“I know!” Aerith said suddenly. “Why don’t we open a bottle of wine, and break the ice first.” She got up and went for the bottle on the dresser. “I bought it for tonight, but…” she decided not to finish the thought and gave a brief look to Cloud as she pulled away the foil. 

Zack caught the look. “Are you two…a thing?” There was a mixture of emotions that Zack was clearly trying to reign-in as he asked that. 

“What of it?” Cloud asked. 

Zack started to look like he was living a personal nightmare. 

“Cloud,” Aerith chided with surprising force. She gave Zack a supremely sympathetic look. 

Something about this clearly bothered Zack, and it was going over Cloud’s head. But he thought maybe Aerith didn’t fully get it either. That she just knew that Cloud had to stop making it worse. Cloud stayed quiet. 

But they were exes, Cloud reasoned, so she could date who she wanted. It just didn’t make sense. 

Bold facedly changing the subject, Aerith asked Zack, as she struggled to pop the cork, “So, you’re part of Avalanche too?” Cloud resisted the urge to ask her if she wanted help with the cork. He knew she would respond with something like, ‘I’m sure I can handle a cork, and we both know you’ll just break the whole bottle.’

“Yeah,” Zack replied. “I couldn’t help but get swept up in it myself.” Then he quirked a smile, and said to both of them, “I heard about what your group did. You were amazing. I wish I was there.” Then, after a moment. “I’ve missed you both.”

Aerith gave him his glass of wine and said, “We are pretty amazing, aren’t we.” Zack laughed. Aerith passed a glass to Cloud as she sat back down, holding her own glass in hand. “It was all mostly thanks to Cloud though. Our very own ex-SOLDIER,” she said.

Zack gave Cloud a fond look he didn’t understand. There was a lot he wasn’t understanding and it made him feel on edge. 

They sat a few moments sipping their drinks. 

“You said you know me, but I don’t remember you,” Cloud admitted, at length. 

“It’s the mako poisoning,” Zack said.

“Yeah,” Cloud agreed. But how did this guy know, exactly? There was something in the certainty in Zack’s voice that made him really wonder. “Were you…there?” Cloud figured if he was, then he would have to know what he meant by ‘there’. Unless the guy spent his whole life floating from one fucked up event to another. As a first-class SOLDIER older than Cloud, old enough to have been in the war with Wutai, maybe he has. 

Zack took a long sip of his drink. “Yes.”

“It wasn’t a standard treatment,” Cloud said, saying it like a statement, but he wanted confirmation. 

“No, Cloud. It wasn’t.”

“Did you do this to me?” he half-accused. 

“No,” Zack said, aghast.

“Then how do you know abou…”

“Because the same was done to me,” Zack said. “I got us out.”

“Were you there when Sephorith…”

“Yes,” Zack’s eyes hardened on him in warning. ‘Now there was the SOLDIER’, Cloud thought in satisfaction, ‘Not the happy buffer’. 

But Cloud supposed he was being unfair, bombarding him with accusations and making him think about the worst thing that probably ever happened to him. “But I’m not gunna talk about it right now.” Cloud nodded, apologetic, letting it go. 

“I was on the run for a while,” Cloud said next. Another probing statement. 

“We both were, Cloud. You were so out of it.” Zack leaned forward, pained, and put his hand on his arm firmly. 

Suddenly, Cloud could see it, pieces of their time running, all at once. His eyes went wide as he took it all in. He was breathing fast. Tears ran down his cheeks. When he came to after who knows how long, Zack’s face was very close. 

Zack. Zack. Zack! A sob escaped his lips and Zack pulled him into a tight hug. 

Instinctually, Cloud wrapped his arms around his neck and upper back, and hugged him tight. The shocking familiarity of the embrace sent another wave of memory jolting through him.

Sometimes, back then, the mako-fog in his head would clear enough that he could talk to Zack, and they would comfort each other, too. These things grounded him. And when Zack kissed him, it made him feel more present and alive than anything had since they first put him in a tank. It made him want to keep coming back to reality. They kissed many times after. And touched. And before they parted ways…

Cloud came back to himself again, and when he sat up a little and looked at Zack, it was with new eyes. Cloud looked searchingly into his eyes. And this time, they connected. He held the side of Zack’s face and leaned in close. So close. 

He saw Zack flick his eyes away and back to him. Then Cloud remembered that Aerith was there. He could now feel the way she was running soothing circles across his lower back with her hand. Zack leaned in closer as well. What did they communicate? Now Cloud looked to Aerith, his emotions all over his face. 

Aerith said to both of them, “I think, you two need some time to talk.” She got up. “I’ll take a nice shower. Give you some time.” Her face showed more than indulgence. It was a genuine interest in what happens next. She gathered some things and went inside the bathroom. 

Then it really hit him. Cloud was clearly dating two people at once without knowing it. 

He knew it, and Aerith knew it, and Zack knew it. 

Cloud didn’t know how she could be ok with them being alone. He didn’t know if Zack could be ok with him dating someone else while Zack must have been so worried for him. ‘Oh no’, he realized, both of these relationships won’t survive this, will they? How could they? But the thought of being without either of them was too painful to contemplate.

Cloud turned back to Zack. Forced himself to stay in the moment. Just him and Zack. 

“Cloud, you remember,” Zack said.

“There’s still a lot I don’t,” Cloud admitted, no longer wary of sharing information because this was his Zack. “But I remember you, and I remember running with you, and I remember us. And I’m sorry that I didn’t know.”

“I’m glad you know now,” Zack replied gently. “And it’s not your fault,” he finished firmly. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you earlier, too.”

“You were pretty mean,” Zack agreed jovially. “I’ll get you back for that, don’t you worry.” He smiled for a moment – giving Cloud butterflies, then it melted into something more serious, “But considering I was a stranger to you, and all that you’ve been dealing with, I definitely get it.”

Cloud nodded, then asked, “Where did you go, Zack? I don’t remember why we split up.” 

Zack told Cloud all that happened to him, and explained what he knew of Cloud’s exploits. “Is it true that Sephiroth was there?” Zack asked him.

“Yeah. I saw him. I talked to him. I fought him.” 

Zack’s eyes widened, looking shaken. Cloud can understand – he’s been shaken up too.

“Let’s talk about that later, with the group,” Cloud said, wanting to focus on the two of them, and Zack agreed. 

Zack hugged him again, worry for Cloud written on his face, and Cloud returned it readily. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t know to look for you,” Cloud apologized. 

“I know why you didn’t,” Zack replied. “You can stop apologizing for everything, jeez. You were fucking amazing Cloud.”

When they pulled back they locked eyes, and Cloud saw the longing and pain and happiness he was feeling reflected in Zack’s eyes as well. All Cloud wanted to do was kiss him. 

He pulled Zack to him as he leaned forward the rest of the way, and kissed him soundly. It felt like freedom, and fierceness, and understanding. Their mouths moved against each other and Cloud was on fire. He missed him so much. 

Zack pushed his tongue gently against his lips, and Cloud opened his mouth without hesitation. Their tongues met and slid against each other in a heady and familiar way. After a while, Cloud pushed harder against his mouth, the desperation of the past mingling with the present longing for Zack he didn’t know he even had until a few minutes ago. 

After a few minutes, Zack pulled away gently, and Cloud didn’t let him at first, chasing after him with his mouth and kissing him again. Zack laughed against him and after a moment, pulled away again. Zack was beautifully and deeply flushed, a smile on his lips. 

*

Aerith leaned against the bathroom sink, half-hearing the two talking on the other side of the door, mind reeling. Zack was alive. She thought, because of her visions, that he was dead. She didn’t feel him say goodbye…but she thought maybe he might not have needed to. 

Cloud and Zack were in a relationship, and Cloud clearly forgot about it - about Zack all-together. That must have been hard for Zack to take just now. But now Cloud does remember, and they obviously really like each other. Cloud was so unguarded once recognition set it – such a rarity for Aerith to see. 

Now what? She let out a long slow breath. 

Aerith remembered what things had been like when she was dating Zack. He was her first love, yes. But it wasn’t really that serious. Full of fun and excitement, but none of the depth she knows that true love is. The love she has for Cloud - or she’s at least on the way towards that love. 

But seeing how Zack looked at Cloud, he has that depth of love for him just as she does. What they went through must have made them very close, in a way she can’t truly understand.

She had taken it so hard when Zack never came back - never even wrote back. But now she knows why and all she feels is empathy for him.

So. Aerith and Cloud like each other. Zack and Cloud like each other. Aerith and Zack? …Were happy once. And Aerith does wonder about him now. 

‘Was there a way for them all to be happy?’ she asked herself desperately. Those boys deserve all the happiness in the world. No matter what, she would do her best not to hurt them. Though she deserved her own happiness as well, didn’t she?

She’s been in the bathroom for a while now, and things grew quiet out there. She opened the bathroom door a little, and her whole body exploded with heat at what she saw. Cloud and Zack were kissing each other - so passionately. And when they deepened the kiss, moaning into each other’s mouths, Aerith struggled to keep quiet herself and her full-body flush grew deeper. They were kissing roughly now, and it excited Aerith, and she couldn’t look away. 

Aerith didn’t feel jealous exactly…But it was hard to figure out what she was feeling. 

Once again she wondered if there was a way for them all to be happy. Aerith needed to find out.

*

“I see now why you never came back. You’ve been through a lot,” Aerith told Zack suddenly from the bathroom door, now ajar with her looking through it. Her face was as flushed as theirs were. 

Cloud looked for anger in her expression for what they had just been doing but surprisingly didn’t see any. “What happened to you, to both of you, was awful.” 

Aerith was still fully dressed and dry, apparently never having taken a shower. Cloud normally would have been tipped off from not hearing the sound of the shower running, but he was obviously distracted. 

Cloud felt distinctly embarrassed for her having listened to what they said and having seen them kissing like that, presumably for the entire time she was away. 

“I’m sorry.” Aerith apologized to both of them, “I didn’t intend to listen in when I left the room. It’s just, I was thinking, and I heard some things through the bathroom door, and I was so worried for the both you, that I couldn’t help it.”

At length, Zack responded to her earlier statement, his surprise turning to something softer. “Aerith. Actually, for the first months on the run, it was the thought of coming back to you that kept me going,” Zack told her. 

Cloud was once again unmoored by what was going on. Why was Zack saying this now when it was all already so complicated? 

“I’m glad you did keep going,” Aerith told him, stepping out of the bathroom now. 

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t contact you. It must have been terrible for you – not knowing. I got your last letter, but I never saw the others.” 

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you what they said,” she said, emotion and sadness in her voice. She walked over to Zack, and Zack stood to meet her. “You really seemed to take such good care of each other. And care so much about each other to go to the lengths you did.” 

“It looks the same from where I’m standing, Aerith. You and Cloud are really good for each other.”

‘Are they really complimenting each other on their relationships with me?’ Cloud thought. 

Aerith gathered her thoughts for a moment, then said, “I wonder what things would be like if the woman I am now got to know the man you are now.” She leans closer to Zack, looking into eyes, then hugs him. Zack hugged her back, and closed his eyes. They both melt into it, like it soothed their souls. She stepped back again and they looked at each other some more. 

Then she turned to Cloud with searching eyes. 

Cloud thought she must be asking without words for some sort of permission, the same as he had done before. But there was some of this that Cloud definitely wasn’t getting. What did it mean that Cloud had asked and she said ‘ok’, and that she is asking the same thing now? What would it mean if he says it’s ok?

He couldn’t fake his way through this one. “When you were ok with it before, when you left the room, what did that mean?” Cloud asked.

Aerith turned to face him fully. “Oh, sweetie. It meant…I knew it was something both of you needed.”

“Not that things were…ended with us?”

“No. No. Not unless that’s what you wanted. But I saw what was between you two, and knew it was something special. And that it ended so abruptly. I can understand that.” She glanced at Zack for a moment, and they shared a look - and then back to Cloud. “And you have a right to know what it is.”

Cloud knew what she meant about understanding an abrupt ending. Zack had disappeared on her for five years – until today. “And you’re looking for that from me now? A chance to see?”

“Yes.” She walked over to Cloud and he stood up. Aerith leaned in and kissed Cloud. It was sweet, and playful, and excited, and through it he could tell that she still wanted to be with him. 

“Should I, like, turn around?” Zack asked, unsure.

Aerith parted her lips from Cloud’s, turned to Zack with an open look that said he didn’t have to – even asked for his understanding with her eyes, and said, “Only if you want to,” then continued kissing Cloud. Cloud didn’t know if he should be embarrassed or not. 

When they parted, Cloud looked at Zack, who had been watching the two of them with embarrassed interest, and no small amount of confusion of his own. Zack’s look changed over time as their gaze held, to acceptance, and then a question of his own – to Cloud. Ok, he was going to go with his gut on this one. 

“Ok,” he said to both of them, looking at each of them in turn. 

Aerith smiled beautifully and kissed Cloud again, nudging her tongue into his mouth to swipe inside, before pulling away. 

Then she turned to Zack, and gazed at him. They said something with their eyes, examined each others faces, and then Zack kissed her gently. 

Cloud watched as Aerith leaned against Zack, tilting her head up. He watched the way Zack bent his head down to meet her, with his arms wrapped around to the small of her back and pressed her against him. Cloud found himself transfixed, watching the way they kissed. It was different than the way either of them have kissed him. It was something that belonged to them, and yet Cloud felt connected somehow because of how he felt about them both. 

Cloud was startled by a hand suddenly clasping his own as the two continued to kiss. Zack’s hand. Their fingers entwined and Cloud got goosebumps all over his body at the physical connection to what was going on. 

Cloud stepped a little closer so that their arms didn’t have to be so outstretched for their hands to meet. Then Aerith’s hand was grasping Clouds arm sensuously, as if Cloud were the one she was kissing, and Cloud’s body grew hot. 

Zack squeezed his hand, and Aerith started rubbed his arm up and down. Cloud’s breath grew shallower. Then Aerith was pulling him forward, toward the two of them. He moved forward to keep up with her hand, and when he stood directly in front of them, between them, they both looked at him with half-lidded eyes. 

Then the two looked at each other and seemed to decide something. Something a little wicked. Aerith guided him again, now to turn and sit on the side of the bed, where the two made to sit themselves and make room for him between them. 

As soon as Cloud was in the middle of them, Zack cupped his chin and moved his head to kiss him firmly. Then Aerith moved behind him, sitting on her knees, and nibbled at his ear, and it was the both of them, and Cloud thought he might combust. Instead, he moaned deep in his throat. This only encouraged the two. Zack kissed him sloppily with renewed vigor and Aerith started sucking a trail down his neck. 

Cloud started to wonder if he might be hallucinating. Those events could be pretty graphic after all. But when have they ever been about anything pleasant? And this was amazing. Cloud took his gloves off, then placed his left hand on the side of Zack’s neck, then his right hand into Aerith’s hair. 

After a while Aerith got up, and squeezed herself between the two men, sitting in Cloud’s lap. Cloud kissed her, and she gasped into his mouth. Zack wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. Rubbing her stomach, then up her sides, prompting more noises from her as she arched her back and neck. Her movements caused her mound to rub against Cloud’s dick – already more than half-hard. Cloud gasped, then pulled her back to his mouth when she was done. 

Zack started to suck on Aerith’s neck. “Wait,” Aerith breathed suddenly,” and everything slowed to a stop. 

“I think this is starting to get away from us,” she elaborated. “We can’t go any further without talking about this.” 

The two men looked at Aerith blankly, then at each other. 

Aerith sighed at their lack of response. “It was a ‘chance to see’, right?” she asked, all turned on and trying to think through the haze. “Though, we didn’t exactly talk about that last bit beforehand, did we? Well, it seemed like an exception to the rule of being upfront about things at the time, but who knows…Well, anyway, now we see that the feelings we three have for each other is something real. And worth doing something about, I think. But I don’t want any of us to have any misgivings about it. So, we would need to be in agreement.”

“You mean…the three of us…in a relationship?” Zack asked. “Or, at least, trying it out? I mean…I admit I didn’t know how to solve the problem of Cloud having a girlfriend that is also the most amazing girl I even met, but…I never considered of anything like this.”

“We don’t have to decide right away,” Aerith responded. 

“I don’t know the answer, either.” Cloud said. “I feel like shit for putting you both through this. For not knowing…The thought of losing either of you is so painful, but I would understand if you wanted to walk away. But what happened just now, it was amazing.” Ok, now that Cloud got that off his chest he knew that Aerith was right. They did need to talk about it. 

“I’m not walking away,” Zack assured him, supportive. 

“Me neither,” said Aerith. 

It eased some of Cloud’s worry. 

“How about we clear our heads, meet with your team,” Zack offered. “We’ll work it out later, when we’re ready.”

They took a few minutes to put themselves back together, then they went to gather their weapons from against the wall. 

Zack looked at Cloud’s buster sword critically for a moment, ran his hand over it, and said, “Damn Cloud, what the hell did you do to the Buster? It’s all scratched to shit.” Cloud remember now that it was actually Zack’s sword. He gave it to him when they parted. He could recognize the teasing in Zack’s in Zack’s voice, but there was some real irritation mixed in the way he said it, too.

“I used it,” Cloud shot back deadpan. 

Zack laughed in concession, “That you did, Spikes.”

~

They all met in Barret, Tifa and Red’s room at the hotel. There were two small beds there, so there were more places to sit for everyone than Cloud and Aerith’s. Cloud and Aerith sat on one bed, and Barret and Tifa were on the other. There was room between the two beds for Zack to sit next to Cloud on a chair, and for Red XIII to sit on the floor next to Zack. 

Everyone passed around snacks and drinks - they were getting used to their little meetings, despite the new addition of Zack in the mix. 

When everyone settled down, Cloud said, “Zack’s an ex-SOLDIER, like me. He’s been in the Junon Avalanche for a while.”

“I remember you,” Tifa told Zack.

“Zack’s eyes widened in sudden recognition. “The cowgirl?” 

“Tifa,” Aerith reminded him. 

Then he looked at Tifa with kind eyes, “I’m glad you’re alright, Tifa.”

“You, too,” Tifa said. 

“How’d you guys meet, then?” Barret asked. 

“It was…in Nibelheim,” Tifa said.

“Just like Spikey, eh?”

Zack laughed at the nickname Barret had for Cloud, and said, “Yeah,” with just a little discomfort at the mention of Nibelheim. 

Barret and Red introduced themselves to Zack next. 

Then Barret commented, “And you’re Aerith’s ex, right? Sounds kind of awkward.” He indicated Cloud with a nod of his head. Then Cloud and Aerith did look uncomfortable, though it’s not exactly for any reason Barret knew about. 

Zack laughed hard at that, though, then just said, “It’s fine.” 

Tifa and Zack met in Nibelheim? Cloud remembered being on the run with him, now, but not him being in Nibelheim. Must be right though, how else did he get caught up in the lab? Which they escaped and were on the run from. “Wait, Zack, is it safe for you to be out in the open?”

“Safe enough I guess. I found out I’m presumed dead. Plus, ever since everything that went down in Midgar, Shinra has much bigger problems than me.”

“What were they chasing you for?” Barret asked. 

“Oh, for leaving, same as Spikes.” Zack smiled at Cloud for offering up his own nickname for him. Cloud fought a flash of memory of what exactly they were running from – brushed it from his mind. 

“What brings you here?” Tifa asked.

“Mostly to check up on my guy, Cloud,” he said, patting Cloud on the shoulder, “but I also wanted to talk to all of you. Sorry, I don’t really have any info from HQ. I just wanted to find out what happened.” Cloud gushed at the knowledge that Zack came here as fast as he could once he knew where Cloud was.

“And about Sephiroth,” Zack added, with a greater seriousness in his tone. 

“Can we trust this guy, blondie?” Barret asked.

“Absolutely. I trust him with my life. And if anyone else besides us has a chance against Sephiroth, it’s him.”

“You didn’t seem to feel that way when you first saw him.”

“I…was mistaken.”

“He was so mean,” Zack complained teasingly. 

Cloud smirked at him, which was apparently a surprising reaction to everyone but Aerith, who smiled at both of them warmly. 

“Anyway, tell me what happened,” Zack prompted eagerly. 

They took their time telling their story, and ordered pizza to the room for dinner. Cloud silenced Aerith and Tifa with a look on some aspects of what happened at Wall Market, even though he was mostly sure they would leave it out anyway, which Zack picked up on with a smile but didn’t push on. 

When they talked about the Whispers, Zack went pale. “They’re what stopped me from going into Midgar with Cloud. I mean, they physically stopped me. And we couldn’t fight them – they were like smoke.”

Aerith stood up abruptly at Zack’s words. 

At the same time, Cloud grabbed Zack’s arm hard as it clicked into place for him, even as he continued to look forward. And the memory crystalizing in his mind. The feeling of helplessness and loss as he walked away from Zack. “Cloud?” Zack asked, concerned. He kept holding on as it passed, and the feeling eased, until he let go of his arm. 

“He’ll be ok,” Tifa said, even though she showed some surprise herself. He’s never reached out to anyone before when it was that intense - maybe that’s why. 

When Zack was satisfied Cloud was ok, he looked to Aerith, and a look passed between them. Then she said, “The Whispers were trying to preserve fate. By that I mean the memory the planet has of how things are supposed to be, the way it knows will guarantee that Sephiroth does not succeed.” Zack’s eyes flashed at his name. Then, when he had a moment to absorb what she said, he said, “I wasn’t meant to go the Midgar? I had to go to Junon?”

Aerith looked regretfully at him, then said, “You had to not be in Midgar, or with Cloud.”

Zack took on a defensive look. “Are you telling me those things will keep me from him again?”

“They won’t,” Cloud said, nonplussed. “We killed them.” 

Zack let out a breath. “Then where am I supposed to be?”

“You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be,” Aerith said with a certainty that gave Cloud goosebumps. 

“Well then. I’ll guess I’ll stay,” he said with a touched smile. 

“Tell me the rest,” Zack encouraged everyone, looking at them in turn. 

So they did, including all about Sephiroth and Jenova. It left Zack looking shaken but resolved. Cloud could more than sympathize. 

“I’m going with you,” Zack declared to them. “I already thought I would, but now I definitely know I am.”

“Alright,” Cloud said with a crooked smile, grasping arms with him. “But we already have an ex-SOLDIER. I don’t know what good you’ll be.” 

“Ha-ha,” Zack intoned. “You’re lucky to have me, and you know it.”

Clouds smile opened up, and Aerith put an arm around each of them. “The more the merrier,” she welcomed. 

Everyone else gave their agreement, too, confused and bemused at the affection the three shared. Cloud was in no position to enlighten them. 

And when everyone started to get up and stretch, Cloud said. “Ok. So, we leave for Mt. Corel in the morning.”

“We’re leaving already? I didn’t even get to hit the beach,” Zack complained. 

“We’ve been here too long already, only stayed ‘cuz we were making good money,” Cloud explained. “Sephiroth was seen heading to Mt. Corel. We don’t want to lose him.” Cloud felt a pang of urgency even as he said it.

“Fine,” Zack answered, pretending to be a little put out. Then, “Shit, Sephiroth.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think?


	5. Costa del Sol, Business District: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in their hotel room...

Cloud and Zack sat on the end of the bed as Aerith continued to pack her bag in preparation for leaving first thing in the morning. Cloud had finished a few minutes ago, and Zack had his own still-packed bag with him, leaning against the wall. 

Zack was understandably still reeling from what he learned in the meeting. Cloud watched him with sympathy. 

At length, Zack said to Cloud, admiration in his voice, “You went into Shinra Tower…to save Aerith.”

“I did,” Cloud replied. “She got all caught up in everything because of me. I couldn’t leave her. And, a part of me just couldn’t stand to think of her in there anyway.”

Aerith added in a soothing voice, looking at Cloud, “I got exactly as involved as I wanted to. It was no picnic in Hojo’s lab though. And he would have never let me go.” Cloud and Aerith have talked about it at length in the past few weeks, so the information was more for Zack’s sake. Cloud could still hear the thanks in her voice. 

“You have a big heart…the both of you do,” Zack told them. “Hojo’s the biggest scum on the Earth, right along with Rufus. Cloud and I know first-hand, too.” Cloud tried not to think too deeply on his words, though what Zack just said was definitely confirmation of what Hojo had indicated – that Hojo himself was the a big part of what happened to Cloud and Zack. Zack and Aerith noticed his tortured expression and thankfully changed the subject. 

“We kicked his ass the other day though,” Aerith told Zack. “He was here of all places, said he was retired from Shinra – as if there’s a way to run from the responsibility of all the shit he’s done. It’s too bad he got away from us in the end. But not before he told us that Sephiroth was seen heading toward Mt. Corel.” 

Cloud felt that pang of urgency again and Zack noticed his set expression, offering a sympathetic one in turn. 

“We’ve got this,” Zack said with confidence,” putting a hand on his arm. “It’s…a lot to take in. But I’m glad I’m a part of it.”

“I’m glad you’re here, Zack,” Cloud told him, putting his hand on top of Zack’s. 

“Me too”, Aerith said, walking over and putting a hand on Zack’s shoulder.

They stayed like that for a moment, and then Cloud scooted closer and leaned on Zack. Zack smiled at him fondly and wrapped an arm around him. 

Aerith smiled, jumped onto the bed and hugged them both from behind for a long moment. The tenderness Cloud felt coming from the two of them was overwhelming. 

When Aerith sat up again, she sat herself next to Cloud and then wrapped her arms affectionately around his torso, resting her head against his stomach. 

They all settled into it. Zack rubbed his hand idly up and down Cloud’s arm, until his hand wound up ruffling Cloud’s hair softly. The contentedness rolled off Cloud, and he shifted so that he could put his face more fully against Zack’s side and put a hand on his chest, causing Aerith to resettle slightly too. Cloud breathed in deep, and breathed out his contentment, eyes closed. 

Aerith rubbed her hand, just as idly, along Cloud’s abs and chest. Another layer of contentment washed over Cloud. 

Cloud felt a small shift and then Zack’s fingers grazed his cheek, making Cloud tingle. He opened his eyes and looked up at Zack. “I missed you,” Cloud told him, the words jumping from his mouth when he looked at him. 

Cloud saw the answering affection in his gaze, and then Zack kissed him gently, and over and over, while Aerith continued to rub her hand against him, looking on. They kissed like that for a long time, reacquainting themselves to each other at a more natural pace than the feeling of desperation that led them earlier that day. 

Then Zack pushed his tongue gently into his mouth, deepening the kiss, though still unhurried. 

It was at this point that Aerith took Zack’s hand, and they clasped hands firmly. As Cloud and Zack continued their kisses, Zack gently tugged at Aerith’s arm to encourage her to come closer. 

Zack parted the kiss, and Cloud sat up with one knee jutting out on the bed, in response to feeling Aerith’s movements. Aerith settled into Cloud’s lap, between the two of them. 

Their renewed closeness settled between the three of them. “Are we doing this, then?” Zack asked in an almost-whisper, the realization of his intentions in bringing Aerith close catching up to him. 

Cloud supposed they’ve been ‘doing this’ since the moment they started getting comfortable. And when Aerith came closer just now, settled into his lap, he wanted nothing more than to share this with them. “I want to,” he told them, just as quietly. 

“Me too,” Aerith agreed. She turned toward Zack in Cloud’s lap, and said to him, “One of the early letters I sent you said something like, ‘I’ve been keeping pretty busy. But, it’s been a month now, and I’m starting to really miss you. You must be on an important mission for it to take this long. Well, you’ll just have to make it up to me when I see you again.’”

Zack looked back at her, pained, and said, “I would love you start making it up to you, if I can. I know it’s been much longer than a month.” 

“I wouldn’t have brought it up if I didn’t want you to,” she told him. “Although, I’m not sure there’s anything to make up for,” she added, considering. “None of it was your fault, Zack. Instead, let’s make it up to each other.” Aerith raised herself up and kissed him with her arms around his neck. 

Cloud gave them this moment, watched on as their kiss deepened. It was so tender. 

Eventually, Cloud held onto her waist, and then wrapped his arms around her in a hug, leaning forward as she did toward Zack. 

Aerith broke the kiss, and after a last look with Zack, turned around to sit in Cloud’s lap with her legs on either side of him. Scanned his face. He could see nothing but satisfaction in hers. And she kissed him, too, arms around his neck.

Zack had his hands on Aerith in an instant. Touching her arms, her waist, her stomach, and then up her chest, making her moan into Cloud’s mouth. 

Cloud felt a thrill from it, and kissed her deeper. 

A few moments later Aerith gave Cloud a cutely wicked grin and ground against him. Cloud groaned. 

Zack kissed her neck as took off her jacket. Then kissed her shoulder, as he roved his hands over her again. 

Cloud unbuttoned the top two buttons of her dress slowly. Kissed the flat of her chest, and the top of her breasts.

“How far do you want to go?” Cloud asked her, knowing how she likes to decide ahead of time. He could see things speeding up fast the way things were going. 

“Using our hands,” she replied. Cloud nodded to her with a smile and looked to Zack, who nodded to him in agreement. 

Aerith kissed him again. 

Zack unbuttoned Aerith’s dress further as he resumed kissing her skin. She was soon breathing heavily with excitement. Zack slid her dress off her shoulders, revealing her smooth skin. And Cloud took off her bra eagerly and tossed it aside. 

Cloud’s lips trailed down over her breast, to her nipple. He could feel against his lips how it hardened with her arousal. Then he licked it, and put it in his mouth, sucking gently. Aerith breathed heavily. 

Zack took her other soft breast in his hand, and massaged it gently, then more firmly. After a while Zack was rolling her nipple with is fingers. 

Aerith rocked against Cloud, harder this time, head thrown back and resting against Zack’s chest. Cloud remembered how he loved pushing against his firm chest. 

Aerith turned her head and used her arm to guide Zack into a kiss. Cloud thought they looked amazing together like that. He rocked back against her even as he bent his head and continued to suck on her nipple, a hand trailing down her side, and Aerith laughed, delighted into Zack’s mouth.

Zack opened the rest of her buttons, one by one, and pulled her dress open, exposing her abdomen, and her cute pink underwear with a small bow in the middle. Cloud traced the outline of her mound with his eyes. 

Aerith started taking off Cloud’s shoulder pad and harness, and Cloud realized that he and Zack have both been focused on Aerith until now. 

Cloud looked at Zack, and after a moment of both being stupefied, exchanged hungry looks. Zack took off his own equipment. Then Zack reached over to Cloud, which made Aerith giggle, since it squished her between the two of them, and pulled his shirt over his head. He could feel her whole length against him, hear chest pushed tight to him. 

They both looked Cloud over when he was done, which made him a little self-conscious for a moment because it was two sets of eyes on him, before reminding himself of who they were.

Then Cloud reached over to Zack, gathered his shirt, and pulled it over his head. And wow. He had a lot to become reacquainted with when it came to Zack. He was all broad frame and muscle. He pulled Zack in for a kiss and felt Aerith pleasantly between them. 

She started unfastening Cloud’s pants next, then moved on to fumblingly opening Zack’s with her hands behind her back, and they somehow maneuvered Cloud’s pants off as she sat on him while Zack took off his own. Then she threw her dress onto the ground.

When they settled again, now with much less clothing, Aerith ground against Cloud, and this time there was much less material between them. He could feel her hot mound pushing against his straining dick, making them both moan. He pushed back each time, Zack’s arms roaming around her, until she faltered. They leaned her back in her distraction, Cloud’s mouth on one breast, and hand on the other, as Zack moved his hand down her body toward her panties. 

Zack’s hand stopped outside the seam in hesitation. Cloud looked at him, took his hand by the wrist and guided it lower, until he was grazing her sex. He looked to Aerith who was thoroughly enjoying herself, and then back to Zack, who’s uncertainly faded, until it morphed to pure desire. For both her and Cloud, it seemed to him. 

Cloud held two of Zack’s fingers next, and guided them to Aerith’s entrance. He pushed Zack’s fingers in and Aerith moaned deep in her throat. Made Cloud’s cock twitch. Made Zack look like he wanted to devour each of them. Cloud let go of Zack’s hand and left him to it, grazing the length of his hand as he went, then going back to giving attention to Aerith’s breasts. 

“You’re so wet,” Zack said, excited. Cloud couldn’t see what he was doing, be he knew his fingers were pleasuring inside her. Aerith moaned, and pushed her hips down onto his fingers. 

The two slowly undid her, until she cried out and arched her body. 

Cloud followed her arch and continued to give her breasts attention as she orgasmed. He could imagine the pulse of her climax on his fingers. When Zack withdrew, Cloud inserted his. She really was so wet, and as he pumped her slowly, he was rewarded with aftershocks – small pulses of pleasure. “You two really know how to take care of me,” she said, “Now, don’t mind me, I’ll join you again when I can.”

It was then that Zack tackled him to the bed and kissed him roughly. Cloud responded in kind, and the contrast to their previous caring activities with Aerith was perfect. He could smell Aerith on his fingers as he cupped his face. Zack moved his erection against him, making them both moan, and Cloud kept time with him. 

Cloud ran his hands along his chest and back, then pulled him close. He missed him so much it was overwhelming. “I missed you,” he whispered.

“I missed you too, Cloud. I really did,” Zack replied with the same feeling. Their kissing slowed and Zack shifted to lay on his side. Cloud moved to lay on his side, too, facing him, and kissing him gently now. And this was also achingly familiar between them. Cloud scooted closer wanting to be as close as possible, chest-to-chest, and legs and arms tangled. 

Cloud felt movement on the mattress and could see Aerith move to lie behind Zack, wrapping her arms around his waist. Zack looked happy and it made Cloud’s heart swell. Zack reached back and took Aerith’s hand, then kissed Cloud again. 

Their hands were roaming and Cloud sucked on Zack’s chest. 

Eventually hands slid to more daring places. Zack grabbed Cloud’s ass, then traced his hand around to touch along the length of Cloud’s bulge, making him gasp. His hand continued to move against him, and Cloud pushed back into his hand. Then Zack moved his hand up to the seam of his underwear, and traced it to his hip. Both of his thumbs were dipping into the seam at either side, and he tugged them down. Cloud moaned when his dick sprung free, and Zack smiled against his mouth as he continued to push down. 

Aerith slowly started rubbing Zack’s own arousal through his underwear as she lent on an elbow to see what Zack was doing with interest. Zack ghosted his fingers along Cloud’s naked cock, and Cloud was breathing fast. Then he grasped it at the base and began stroking him slowly. Cloud was lost in the feeling, and Aerith put her hand in Zack’s boxer briefs. Zack couldn’t move for a moment as she stroked him, then continued his movements on Cloud. Cloud wanted to see what Aerith was doing and he tugged down Zack’s underwear to see the way she stroked him with delicate fingers. Cloud’s hand joined hers.

Aerith took a moment and pulled Zack’s underwear off, and moved his leg so that he was spread wide, and he groaned. She took her panties off before settling back, one hand between Zack’s legs helping Cloud, and the other pleasuring herself with her own leg bent as well. 

Zack’s breath was getting ragged, and the two picked up the pace as they stroked him. Cloud kissed him, and Aerith sucked on his neck. 

He came over their hands, body curling in, muscles clenching. Everything stopped for a few long moments. Cloud and Aerith looked at each other in satisfaction. 

Eventually Zack smiled beautifully at him, and stroked Cloud again. Aerith laid on her back now, and pumped her fingers inside herself faster. 

Cloud moaned loudly and Aerith moved to be behind him now, taking off his underwear and jutting his leg out, and giving him the same attention she had given Zack. Her breasts against his back, her hand on his dick, her mouth on his throat. 

Cloud moved his hand behind himself and fingered her. 

Zack sucked on his nipple, and kissed him and soon he spilled over, coming hard. He cried out. 

A few minutes later, he could hear Aerith groan as she came again, Zack pumping her with his fingers. 

Cloud stayed there with them for a long time, feeling their body heat. Cloud tight to Zack’s chest and Aerith spooning him from behind. Listening to their breathing slow and even out. Until Cloud was pulled into sleep. He doesn’t remember even being as comfortable as this.


	6. On to Mt. Corel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things keep heating up as they travel, but how long before danger catches up with them?

Cloud’s team was tight – Zack was impressed. They sure didn’t fight like SOLDIERS, but how they operated was even better in his opinion. Melee and ranged attacks, physical and magical and unique abilities. Using their strengths for each other seamlessly. It was genuine respect, their shared purpose and experience that made the difference. He’s never seen anything like it. 

And they had crazy-good materia to boot.

When they left Costa del Sol, Cloud has gotten that gleam in his eye again, and urged them on.

So yea, sometimes the mood was heavy. And there are some things about Cloud that Zack knew had to come out eventually. 

One time when it was just the two of them, when Cloud was sassing him teasingly, Zack put him in a headlock and said, “You may be a SOLDIER to all these guys, but I knew you when you were a little baby cadet!” And Cloud acted like Zack was making it up to tease him for his young age when he became a SOLDIER….Which caused Zack pause. And he realized that Cloud wasn’t just pretending to be a SOLDIER, even to his own team. No, he actually thought he was a SOLDIER. His memory wasn’t just fuzzy - it was rewritten. 

Zack talked to Tifa about it, and she confirmed his suspicion. Explained what Cloud recounted to the team back in Kalm. He didn’t want to confront Cloud about it quite yet, but he knew he shouldn’t wait too long either. 

They shared worried expressions, and then Tifa admitted, “When I first saw him in Midgar, he was really out of it. Talking nonsense to the people around him, freaking them out. I hadn’t seen him in five years.” It made Zack feel sick to hear it. “And I rushed over to him, and smoothed it over, and then, Cloud was just there. I was so glad he started making sense, but I knew I couldn’t leave him alone after that.”

“You’re a good friend,” Zack told her kindly. Then overcome with thankfulness, a knot in his throat, he put his hand firmly on her shoulder and said, “thank you.” 

Tifa was surprised by the emotion in his words, then her face gentled. “You were separated, right? Were you worried about him?”

“Yeah. And that’s an understatement.”

“Well then, you’re a good friend, too.” 

~

The mood between him and Cloud and Aerith has been amazing. They all split into two teams at some point on the way to Mt. Corel and now it was just the three of them. Aerith has a natural charm that’s been easy to fall back in with, and Cloud’s looking more carefree sometimes than Zack could hope, and bantering right back with them. 

One time Aerith wailed expertly on a monster that was resistant to magic using her staff like a baseball bat, and Cloud just about bust a gut laughing with delight, falling to the ground. 

The friendly flirting was already pretty heavy before the split, and now that they were alone it got much worse (more like better!). 

But there was also something missing. At one point, Aerith noticed something between Zack and Cloud and encouraged them to spend time alone together, without the stresses that they were previously under. 

The offer made Zack realize that, even though the three of them together were great, he longed for the intimacy that was just between him and Cloud. And that just because the three of them were at a certain point of discovery didn’t mean that they couldn’t still be themselves on a one-on-one basis. In other words, if the two of them wanted to have sex they should be completely free to do that. And the same is true for any of them one-on-one. When he voiced this to them, they agreed that it made sense. 

So when Zack and Cloud were alone in their tent, Aerith cooking lunch a distance away, they felt free to do what they wanted. Reacquainting themselves with touches, exploring new things using their mouths, and having sex with abandon to the point that Aerith definitely heard both of them. The mood was fun and Cloud’s enthusiasm was beyond sexy. 

This led to Cloud and Aerith having some time alone as well, and then Zack and Aerith, too. Zack’s time with Aerith was both nostalgic and new. She was still exciting, but with an added presence that was intoxicating. He found he was falling for her all over again, but harder this time. It wasn’t long before they decided to show their appreciation of each other using their mouths. 

~

It was a good night. They were dry now after a dip in the river, except for their underwear which is all they bothered to wear while their clothes dried from washing. They had cooked the game they caught and were satisfyingly full. The night air was comfortable and the moon was close to full, making it bright. The sky was clear so you could see the stars. 

“You have to show Tifa your batting technique,” Cloud told Aerith. “I wonder if she’ll think it rivals your chair-swing. I didn’t see that myself, but she never got over that.”

“Make room, I’m as much of a badass as you,” she replied with a smile. 

“No doubt. You were fierce.”

“Then why did you laugh!”

“Because it was amazing! Cute and brutal all at once!”

“So she’s just like you after all! Cute and fierce.” Zack added in, talking to Cloud.

“I’m not cute,” he denied. ‘Badass’ was closer to how he preferred to think of himself, but it was impossible with Zack (and with a lot of people that judge him on first glance), and he knew he would never convince him. “I’m mean, remember?”

“You were mean to protect Aerith! What’s cuter than that?!”

“You only think so because you’re a SOLDIER too.”

“Maybe, but that’s just a benefit of being me I guess. But I know you can kick my ass. I’ve seen you fight. So it’s not just that, cutie,” And he winked at him. 

Cloud sighed, even as he felt tingly from the wink Zack gave him.

All of sudden, Zack crowded in on his space, loomed over him, and into him, face close. Cloud’s breath quickened and he eased back a little, cheeks getting hot.

“See? Cute.” Zack smiled sweetly and kissed him. Hnmm, guess he would have to settle for being cute. At least when it came to Zack. He wasn’t going to say so out loud, though. 

“You’re both adorable,” Aerith added fondly.

Cloud and Zack settled back to sitting, Zack taking Cloud’s hand now. 

“It should be wash day more often,” Aerith commented cheerily. “I’ve got to say, I like underpants time. I get a good view of the both of you.”

Everyone laughed, and the comment certainly reminded Cloud of their state of undress, and how there was still plenty of time left before they had to go to bed...And then it settled into contented silence for a time. 

“What do you think of the sky now? Since leaving Midgar?” Cloud asked Aerith as he looked up at it. He remembered how the endless sky scared her as she left Midgar. 

Aerith looked up now, too, then said, “It is beautiful, isn’t it. Maybe it’s not as bad as I thought when I first left. I lived so long under the plate. But it holds its dangers.”

“Meteor?”

She hummed her agreement.

Cloud put an arm around her, and she leaned against him. “I always saw it as endless possibilities,” he said. 

“You had big dreams,” she replied. “Zack, you did, too. Nothing could keep you from moving forward.”

“Yeah. Can’t stand still.” He smiled wistfully. “Until...” What was left unsaid was, ‘Until it all ended.’

“Maybe…Maybe that wasn’t the end of either of your dreams. Maybe that’s what brought you here. Doing this. Saving people. Isn’t that what you always wanted, at the heart of it?”

Cloud got a lump in his throat at her words. Filled with such love for her. For the both of them. Held Zack’s hand tighter, then turned to face Aerith and kissed her lovingly.

“You’re wonderful, Aerith,” Zack told her, scooting closer to her. Kissed her cheek, temple, side of her chin – making her giggle through kissing Cloud. Then Zack moved on to Cloud, kissing his face as well. So tender it was kinda painful but Cloud didn’t move away. 

Aerith pushed Cloud down to the ground gently, molding herself to him, and tucked her leg up to hug his side. Cloud wrapped his arms around her back. 

There was a heightened mood between them all now. A mixture of their increased understanding, and gained comfort with each other, and the pleasantness of the night. And the being in their underwear thing. It was that too. Too tempting for all of them. They were still damp too, clinging to Cloud, and he could feel it from Aerith’s bra. 

Aerith sat up on Cloud a moment and took off her bra, sighing relief as the night air hit her damp skin. “That’s better,” she said, and molded herself to him again.

Cloud thought it was time to take things further with the three of them. “I want to taste you,” he told her. 

“You should,” she replied with a moan. Zack moaned next to them. 

Cloud rolled them both over and sat up. 

Zack took off his underwear as they moved, and gave a relived sigh of his own. The other two did the same.

Cloud kissed her jutted knee, and kissed a trail along the inside of her thigh.

Aerith spread her legs for him, and Cloud dipped his head, and swiped the tip of his tongue over her folds. She mewled and put a hand gently into his hair. Zack watched, rapped for a moment, then put his attention to kissing her mouth, her neck, her breasts, and she had her hand on the back of his neck as he did. She started to writhe and Cloud made sure that as she did, his tongue pushed inside her, making her moan loader. He looked up, and saw her flushed face, and moved his tongue in and out of her again and again, then added his fingers as he sucked on her folds. 

As he continued, Cloud watched the way Zack ran his hands over her, sucked on her nipple. 

After a while Zack sat up, pulled Cloud up too, and kissed him. Then he winked at him and took over between Aerith’s legs. Cloud watched Zack a while, at the way he mouthed at her so enthusiastically. And then as Aerith gasped out when he licked at her clit firmly, then sucked on it. Cloud pushed his fingers back inside her and she was nearly arching off the ground. He leaned over her, and kissed her deeply while the two worked to make her come. She came screaming and Cloud smiled at her then at Zack.

Cloud and Zack kissed again while Aerith came down. Zack pushed him down onto his back and lay on top of him. 

“Alright Cloud, you’re in for it now,” Aerith announced. Zack smiled and rolled off of him. Aerith was at his side and Cloud opened his legs to make room for her between them. 

She bent down unreservedly a moment later. Aerith wrapped her mouth around the head of Cloud’s dick and swirled her tongue around it. Then she sank her mouth lower and lower onto it. She sucked and moved her head slowly and Cloud’s head was soon spinning. Then Zack kissed him, and Cloud kissed back hungrily. Their hands explored where they could reach, and Zack gently tugged on his hair, pulling a groan from Cloud. 

After a while, Zack moved down his body and gave Aerith a playful tap. She raised her head and smirked, then backed away some, giving Zack room. 

He spread Cloud’s legs wider, making room for himself, and took him into his mouth. Sucking him down and moving his head. He touched his inner thighs and his balls, and Cloud writhed until Zack pressed him down by the hips. 

“Could you get my bag, please Aerith?” he asked as he came up for air. 

Cloud guessed at why he needed his bag, and groaned. 

Zack pulled out the lube he bought, and asked Cloud, huskily, “Can I finger you?”

Cloud was debating it in his head for the whole minute since he got the hint. There was no question about whether he would like it. He would love it. But did he want to that in front of Aerith? 

“Oh wow,” she said, breathless. Cloud could see an excitement in her eyes, and that decided it for him. 

Cloud nodded, suddenly nervous and eager. Zack settled between his legs, swallowed down his cock again and gently rubbed his hole with a slick finger. 

Cloud closed his eyes, getting lost in the feeling. He felt Aerith’s hands gently glide over his legs and abdomen. Cloud writhed against the attentions. Then Zack inserted a finger slowly, and moved it in and out. Cloud pulled Aerith gently to lean on top of him, and kissed her hungrily. She carted her hands through his hair as she kissed back, and rubbed her mound against his side. 

Then Zack was moving his finger just right, and Cloud moaned. Zack slowly added a second finger the same way, and after a time spread his fingers wider, then crooked them in a way that made Cloud moan deep with pleasure and want into Aerith’s mouth. She kissed him more hungrily, then pulled away to see what Zack was doing for herself. 

Cloud was unravelling, no long able to keep track of what the two were doing, only able to focus on the feeling of it. He heard Aerith ask, “Cloud, can I?” and Cloud opened his eyes for a second to nod to her, heart thundering, before closing them again. 

Deft, delicate fingers replaced rough, demanding ones, while Zack continued to give attention to his dick. She took her time in exploring with her fingers, repeating the motions that made him react the most. Zack, now with single focus, sucked on him deep and hard. And Aerith’s fingers were sending jolts of pleasure through his body, first with soft strokes, then with more pressure. 

He felt his orgasm building – such a big feeling. As it built, he was crying out, and arched his back and head as the two kept his hips steady. “I’m gunna…” he started, but couldn’t speak to finish. Zack groaned and the reverberation it caused through him sent him over the edge. With a final cry, he came hard in Zack’s mouth, and he could feel him swallowing it down, and feel Aerith still moving her fingers in him. Release spurt through him, over and over, until at length he was spent. 

“Ok, I want one of those,” Zack commented. 

Cloud laughed and lay blissfully unmoving for quite a while. 

When he was able to take in the world around him again, he saw Aerith kissing Zack and fingering him with enthusiasm, Zack sitting up some and bending forward to meet her lips. Oh my god. 

Cloud moved closer to them, taking in what he was looking at. Then he took Zack’s erection in his hand and stroked him slowly. Zack gasped in surprise and pleasure at the touch. He turned to look at Cloud with a flushed face and smiled at him, as Aerith looked to him as well. Then Zack closed his eyes in pleasure again. 

Cloud put his other hand over Aerith’s and felt the motions of her hand thrusting inside of Zack. Then he bent his head and took the head of his cock into his mouth. Zack groaned, and lay down all the way, and Cloud felt a thrill at the effect he had on him. 

Cloud licked up his length slowly, and when he got to the tip, he put his mouth over him again and sunk down further than before. He could feel his dick twitch. Then he moved his head up and down slowly as he sucked. Zack put a hand in his hair and gripped it firmly. Cloud moved his tongue around his head, and rubbed the underside with his tongue as he sunk deeper still with his mouth. Zack made a helpless noise and squeezed his grip on his hair a little harder for a moment, which Cloud liked a surprising amount, sending a thrill though him. Cloud put a hand on the small of Aerith’s back to feel connected to her, and she placed her own hand on his upper back, rubbing circles there. 

When Cloud thought he had a handle on using his mouth well enough, he rubbed down the length of Aerith’s thrusting hand, rubbed Zack’s inner thighs and asked him if he could finger him. 

Zack responded with a rough, “Yes,” and pulled Aerith further up his body as she pulled her fingers from him. She straddled Zack’s waist now as she kissed him. Cloud took a moment to appreciate her beautiful ass before putting two fingers gently inside Zack. 

“Rougher,” Zack urged him, after a while. 

So Cloud thrust his fingers more firmly into him, trying different things. Soon Zack was gasping and pushing down against his fingers, and Cloud held firm at that angle as he thrust. He sucked harder with his mouth and groaned when Zack held his head in place and thrust shallowly into his mouth, just managing to keep up and not gag. 

Zack apologized and let go when he realized what he did, but Cloud assured him it was fine. ‘More than fine’, Cloud thought fleetingly, before increasing his pace. 

Aerith moved up Zack’s body and sat on his face. Zack grabbed her hips without hesitation and licked her senseless. She writhed and moved her hips on top of him.

Before long, and with a huge groan against Aerith, Zack was coming in his mouth in forceful spurts. He swallowed what he could, but most of it dribbled out of his mouth, and down Zack’s length. Aerith eased off his as he came, hovering above him with her hands in his hair. 

“Oh my god,” Zack exclaimed, and Cloud was very pleased with himself. 

Aerith moved to sit beside Zack, and Cloud and went to her and kissed her hard. “Let me help you finish,” Cloud offered.

A moment later Aerith was riding his face, and he had no idea it was would be so much fun. 

~

A while later, Cloud was nearly asleep in the tent, feeling exceedingly content. Cloud and Aerith were on either side of Zack, Zack and Aerith curled in on each other (already asleep), and Cloud hugging Zack’s back. Cloud rolled onto his back, and started getting up to get some water. 

Suddenly, the world changed all around him. Zack and Aerith were gone. Fire was everywhere and he was in Nibelheim again. Cloud felt the flames against him skin. And then Sephiroth appeared from nowhere, kneeling in front of him, with a reprimanding expression, and pushed him forcefully back down to the ground. Either hand pinning Cloud to the ground by his shoulders. He moved his face close to Cloud’s own. 

Cloud was frozen. And not just physically. His mind was blank. 

“You’re having much too much fun, Cloud,” he told him. It was teasing and cold and seductive all at once. “Your eyes should be on nothing but me.” 

Cloud got goosebumps as his words washed over his entire being. Cold dread and panic washed over his body as if chasing the effect of his words. 

Then he was gone. And Cloud was back in the tent, staring at the ceiling.


	7. Gold Saucer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud learns to rely more on Zack and Aerith when he needs to - followed by a bit of levity and increased closeness in their relationship.

Aerith noticed that Cloud was acting a bit withdrawn this morning. He didn’t seem mad or standoffish – just, distant and vaguely sad. In his own head in a way she knew he meant to stay for a while. She made a point of being extra nice to him to compensate, which she could tell he appreciated, but it didn’t lift his mood. She talked to Zack about it, and they decided to give it a day or two before asking him about it. Cloud’s levity ‘til now has been a blessing, and he has a right to deal with things the way he needs to. 

It got colder as they got higher up, and the mountains were thick with monsters. Probably because of the nearby mako reactor. Aerith could see how it could have been pretty around here once if you had the chance to walk peacefully around, even if the region was a bit desolate. ‘Was that because of the reactor too, or always a part of the region?’ she wondered. She took note of the mining cart tracks.

They approached North Corel in the afternoon, and waited an hour or so for the other team to meet up with them before heading into town. They’ve been texting back and forth so they knew they were almost there. They sat on the side of the road, against a rock face. Zack made himself comfortable. He was leaning up against Cloud to rest, with his feet up on Aerith’s lap. She rubbed idly at his legs as they sat peacefully, letting the adrenaline of fighting seep out of her. After a while, Cloud swung out an arm to place on Zack’s chest, and tucked his head down and closed his eyes. 

When the others came they made their greetings and headed toward town. 

Tifa pulled Aerith aside by the arm as they walked, and asked, keeping a friendly hold on her, “So, Miss Aerith, what’s going on with you three? You’re dating Cloud, but Zack’s always there, too, nowadays. And the three of you were looking pretty cozy just now,” she looked at her beseechingly. “I can’t figure it out for the life of me.”

Aerith saw no point in hiding anything. It’s not like the three hid anything to begin with – they just didn’t make any announcements or anything. “All three of us are dating each other,” Aerith explained as clearly as possible. 

“Like…you and Cloud, and you and Zack?” Tifa asked, surprised.

“Yeah. And Cloud and Zack, too.” 

Tifa’s eyes widened. “I…did not think of that,” she admitted. “But now that you say it…Yes, that absolutely fits.” She was silent for a few moments, clearly thinking it through, her face getting a little pink, and then she said, “Thanks for tell me.”

“Of course,” Aerith replied easily. “You’re by bestie after all.”

Tifa looked surprised and flattered. Aerith meant it, too. “You’re mine too,” she said softly. 

“I’m sorry I never talked to you about dating Cloud,” Aerith said next, the sudden urge to smooth this thing over between them too strong to deny. “I thought you might not want to – talk that is, because I thought maybe you like him, too.”

“I did,” she admitted. “I can’t say I was never jealous. But, the more I saw you two together, the more I slowly started to think of him as a friend. And…it’s ok, now. I figured out that I really can be his friend. And now, him dating someone else too makes me feel like I’m further in the friend-zone than ever before.” She laughed a bit sadly. 

“The worst part of me dating him is the fact that it hurt you, Tifa. I’m serious,” Aerith admitted. Then, “Does that mean I can talk to you about this relationship because, a lot has been going on!”

“Tell me,” she compelled her. 

~

The mood changed dramatically when they entered North Corel. Barrett’s cold welcome home weighing on all of them. Aerith didn’t know that he was from Corel. And that he felt responsible for what happened. Cloud assured him that Shinra was at fault, not him, but Aerith could tell that didn’t change his mind on it. 

Aerith was excited to learn that their next stop was the Gold Saucer. She’s always wanted to go there! 

Cloud was a natural at Chocobo racing. He tried it at first on the premise of trying to make some money. Once he got started, though, he was at it all day. Aerith could see how his worries faded from him as he rode, which made her happy to see. He was winning races before too long, and his satisfied smiles made him look devastatingly handsome. 

The three of them would have to go on a date later. Zack and Cloud have never been on a proper date together. It feels like a high priority. 

~

Zack, Cloud, and Aerith walked around the Saucer’s amusement park. Aerith led the way as they toured the area, and Cloud and Zack followed, holding hands as they went. 

The only bit of shop talk was when Zack was describing the battle arena he visited earlier and mentioned that the owner of the Saucer, Dio, talked to him about someone meeting Sephiroth’s description asking him for information about the Black Materia. When Aerith heard it, she got goosebumps, because she knew the significance of the materia, but she didn’t let on. Cloud said he would talk to Dio, too, in the morning. 

The Saucer was full of rides, and games and bright blinking lights, and lively music. And people. Happy people – groups of kids, and families, and adults (and some of them seemed to have found the bar at some point). 

Aerith would look back at the two of them sometimes with a smile and they retuned her smiles easily, even if Cloud’s was still subdued. 

Aerith bought them all a bag of donuts, which the guys housed pretty quickly. She managed to get two for herself. Man those boys can eat. They got some meat and veggie skewers next and continued to eat as they walked. 

They played games and went on the rides. They all went on the roller coaster twice, then Aerith sat out as they went for a third time.

~

Then they took to walking again, and they reached a quiet spot tucked away from the crowds, with a bench that fit the three of them easily. They watched the lights of the park as they flashed. 

Cloud’s previously casual expression became more somber as they sat. He was pulling back into himself, and Zack knew this was when they should bring his distress out into the open. In the midst of a nice night, where Cloud wasn’t on edge. 

“What’s been bother you, Cloud?” Zack ventured. 

Cloud looked back at him, surprised at the question. 

“You’ve been distracted since this morning. We’re just concerned,” Aerith added. 

“It’s…” Cloud went distant again. Hopefully in deciding what to say, and not checking out of the conversation. 

“It’s Sephiroth,” he said. Zack raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. “I get these…”

“Visions?” Aerith offered.

“It’s not the visions. Though I’ve had my share of those. No. It’s not of something that’s ‘supposed’ to happen, or something that did happen. Not entirely anyway. It’s Sephiroth…talking to me…and it’s not a dream. It’s really him. I feel it. Or maybe it means that I’m insane and it just seems real.” Cloud’s expression became more worried as he talked about it. 

Zack felt a fierce spike of protectiveness. “When? What did he say,” he demanded.

“Last night, before I fell asleep.” Cloud told him what he saw of Nibelheim burning, how he attacked him, and what Sephiroth said to him. 

“Has something like this happened before?” Zack asked. This was disturbing. Sephiroth was getting into his head? 

“Yes, but not for a while. Not since he and I talked in Midgar.”

“You’re not insane, Cloud.” She leaned toward him, looked him in the eye, made sure it resonated with him. Then she sat back again. “Maybe he didn’t like that you were happy,” Aerith offered. “It’s different than before, so it’s something of an unknown.”

Cloud looked at Aerith. “We weren’t supposed to be together? Any of us?”

Aerith hesitated, biting her lips, before saying ‘yes’. “But remember that there is no ‘supposed to be’”. 

“But knowing that it’s different and that it bothers Sephiroth could be important, right?” Zack asked her. 

“Yes. We need to talk to the team about this.”

Cloud looked mildly panicked. “I have to tell them I’m seeing things, don’t I?”

“I think it’s really important, yes,” Aerith agreed. 

Zack and Aerith exchanged worried glances. 

“What if it’s more than feelings that he’s sensing from Cloud? What if he knows exactly what the team is up to?” Zack asked. 

“I don’t know how he does it, or what he knows,” Cloud said. “Zack, what did Hojo give me in that lab?” He asked the question quietly, and like he didn’t really want to know. Just that he was resigned to the fact that he needed to. 

“Jenova’s cells.”

Cloud lowered his head. “The same as Sephiroth. It must be connecting us in some way.” He was quiet for a minute, then said, “It’s like he’s calling me to him. It’s the worst in person. But when he’s in my head too. And…always, at least a little bit, that feeling is there.”

Zack hugged him tight, and Cloud held on to him. 

“We’ll find him, get some answers,” Aerith said, putting a hand on Cloud’s back. “And we’ll stop him.”

Cloud nodded. “Thank you,” he said to them, and he looked a bit relieved at having gotten this heavy thing off his chest.

“You can tell us the things that bother you,” Zack told him. “I want you to. Let us help you. Even if it wakes me up in the middle of the night.”

Aerith agreed easily. “That’s right. What’s on your shoulders is too heavy for any one person. Zack and I can help. The team – your friends – can help.”

Cloud looked sincerely touched and didn’t seem to know what to say.” He nodded. 

~

They walked around the Gold Saucer some more until they felt more like themselves. Then they bought some wine and went back to their room. The room was nice, if a bit over-the-top, with red and purple and gold splashed around the room, a large bed, and plush sofa. 

Cloud drank a full glass within the first two minutes and got himself another one, then slinked down on the couch to an absurd degree so that only his head was still on the back of the couch. Aerith was sitting casually next to him, leaning back into the cushions, and Zack sat across from them with one leg jutted out to the side on the floor, a coffee table between them. 

“Ok, there’s something I’ve been curious about,” Zack prompted good-naturedly. 

Cloud was ready for a distraction, and took heart in Zack’s happy tone, waiting for his question with interest. 

“Shoot,” he replied. 

“What happened in Wall Market that made you all skittish when Aerith and Tifa were talking about your adventures?” Zack had a shit eating grin on his face, like he knew it had to be good. 

Aerith burst out laughing, falling into Cloud and holding onto him. 

Cloud’s hopes for a fun conversation shattered into a million pieces. 

“Come on,” Zack needled at Cloud’s silence. 

“Can I tell him?” Aerith asked with a huge smile, hand over her chest. 

Cloud though it was better than telling it himself so he sighed heavily and said, “Fine.” 

“Well, as you know, Tifa was in the grimy clutches of the nefarious Don Corneo, and Cloud and I went in after her to get her out. What we didn’t mention is that the only way of getting in was at the favor of one of his trusted advisors, and that favor was only given to beautiful women. Though I did mention in the original story that that is how I personally got in.”

“And I bet you were beautiful. So, what did Cloud do?” he asked.

“She was,” Cloud couldn’t help but add with a small blush, which Aerith smiled at him for. 

“At the suggestion of one of the advisors, he gained favor himself – from the one Andrea Rodea.” 

Zack nearly choked on his drink, took a moment, then asked, “The owner of the Honeybee Inn, Andrea Rodea?”

“The same,” Aerith beamed. 

“But what good’s his favor if he’s not a girl?”

“That’s why it had to be Rodea. To dress Cloud up!”

Zack put his drink down carefully, pink in his cheeks. “Go on,” he urged with forced calmness. 

“So, to gain his favor, Cloud danced with Andrea, and they looked amazing, and Andrea loved him.”

“On stage?”

“On stage.”

“What kind of dancing?”

“Oh, lively stuff. And then Rodea agreed and they gave him a whole makeover, and he spun him around in his frilly dress and I could have died from how cute he was,” Aerith gushed. 

“What did he look like?” 

Aerith described it in detail, and Cloud barely kept from objecting. 

“Will you draw it for me?”

Cloud groaned in embarrassment. “No,” he said firmly.

“Cloud hated every second of it,” Aerith added in sympathy. 

“How did he spin him?” Zack asked.

Aerith got up and mimed for Zack to do the same. She took his arm and twirled into him. “Then, Zack, he dipped him low, and got real close.”

“Like this?” Zack asked, zipping her down. 

Cloud’s face was burning. “Guys,” he protested.

“Lower.”

Zack dipped her lower.

“Put your face closer,” Aerith instructed.

“Closer?” Zack asked surprised, and came closer. 

“Just like that,” Aerith said. 

They did look really, really close. Is that how it happened? It was all a blur at the time. Cloud’s face was flaming. 

“Then what?”

“He brought him back up, all smooth.”

“What did Cloud do when they were so close?”

“He gave that neutral stare of his that he does when people flirt with him too much. But I think he liked it at least a little bit.”

“I never saw him getting hit on, actually. Except when it was me,” he smiled wide, “and you.”

Cloud frowned. “I was trying to save Tifa. And he wasn’t hitting on me, it was just teasing.”

“No…,” Aerith responded, like she knew better. 

“Could you stop now? Is this because I was mean to you when we met again?” Cloud asked.

Zack looked at him, heat in his gaze now. “It’s because it’s hot as hell, Cloud. You in a dress. I had no idea until Aerith said it that I absolutely love the idea. I could get a nose bleed any second here thinking about it.”

Cloud looked at him doubtfully.

“So he brought him back up?” Zack asked Aerith, bringing the conversation around again. “See, here’s where I differ,” Zack said, still heated, and kissed her. Tangled in the reenactment as it was, it made Cloud blush even harder. 

“Will you stop now?” Cloud asked. 

But the kiss was changing into something that was purely them. Aerith wrapped her arms tight around his neck, and Zack pushed her against him with his arms around her lower back. Well, no need to stop that.

Zack spun Aerith up again to stand, picked her up and pushed her against the wall as they kissed. Aerith had her legs on either side of him and rubbed against him, making them both moan. Fuck. Cloud sat up straighter. 

Zack hiked her skirt up so that there was less material between them, and they both rubbed against each other. Zack freed one arm from its hold on Aerith, pushed her harder against the wall to compensate, and pulled out his cock, so hard already and pushed against her again. Oh my god.

“Aerith,” he breathed against her mouth, “I want you.”

“I want you, too.” The way his cock teased against her was making them both ache for it, made Cloud ache too. Zack pushed her panties aside and pressed insistently against her entrance with is dick, with tiny little taunting presses. Oh my god, Oh my god, fuck. 

“Zack,” she said with need. The ache intensifying. 

Zack pushed gratefully into Aerith’s waiting sex, eyes locked and hungry and loving. He began to thrust, making them both moan deep, and Aerith wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, holding him close. They kissed deeply, and Aerith rocked back against him, in unison with his movements. 

They took their time taking their clothes of as they continued to move against each other. When they took their underwear off, Zack lifted and pinned her again and thrust into her like it had been too long without her.

Over time the intensity between them built, until Zack was snapping forcefully into Aerith. Cloud imagined what it would be like to thrust into Aerith like that, and what it would be like for Zack to thrust into him. He was sure he could come just from watching them. 

Their movements slowed and then they were both looking to Cloud. 

“Cloud, why don’t you join us? I want you, too” Aerith offered. 

“Yeah,” Cloud agreed right away. Took off his shirt. 

Zack looked him over. “We could try, all at the same time,” he suggested. 

“God yes.” He finished getting undressed quickly. 

“Hmmm,” Aerith agreed dreamily. 

Cloud hopped Aerith up onto the desk that was against the wall, into a sitting position, inspired by what he saw from the two of them earlier. 

Cloud kissed her and pushed into her, and she was hot and soft and perfect. They held each other close, and started a slow pace. He held her cheek as he kissed her slow and deep. His other hand roamed up her body, rubbed over a nipple and pinched lightly. Aerith molded to him, wrapping her legs loosely around him. 

Zack gave them a few minutes, then suggested they get onto the bed. Cloud picked her up and carried her to the bed, still joined, and put her down on the bed. Started the pace again as soon as he could.

Zack sat next to them, took Cloud’s face and kissed him deep, making Cloud still except for that kiss. 

Then Zack got behind him, and Cloud moved in Aerith again. Zack was leaning over him, kissing his back, and stroking his legs, his ass. Cloud stopped again, anticipation spiking. He spread his cheeks and rubbed enticingly at his hole. Cloud spread his legs wider and Zack’s finger breached him, making him moan. Aerith examined his face, then kissed him. After a while he added a second.

Then he removed his fingers and positioned himself fully behind him. Cloud felt Zack’s cock rubbing along his ass, between his cheeks, grazing his hole each time. And Cloud was overcome with the need to be fucked. “Zack,” he said needily against Aerith’s lips. Aerith put a hand on either side of his face. 

“You’re ready?” Zack asked, lust thick in his voice.

“Yeah,” Cloud replied, breathless. 

Without further delay, Zack pushed slowly into him part way, groaning loud in pleasure. Cloud cried out at the mixture of sensations. 

“Ok?” Zack asked, strained.

“Yeah.”

Then Aerith moved beneath him. Felt amazing. 

After a few moments, Cloud told him to keep going. Zack pulled out, then pushed in slowly deeper until he was fully inside him. Cloud cried out again, and the two roamed their hands all over him, and Aerith kept moving against him, while Zack sucked at his neck. 

“Tell me when you’re ready,” Zack told him. 

Cloud let himself get lost in the things they were doing to him, until he felt the stretch ease completely. “Ok, I’m ready,” he said. 

Then Zack moved, thrusting out, then back in, and after a few times Cloud matched the pace to meet his thrusts, which also made Cloud glide inside of Aerith. The feeling turned into electric pleasure inside of him, and soft heat surrounding him, all of it combining low in his gut. “Oh, fuck,” Cloud said. “You’re both amazing.”

Cloud moved fluidly against the two of them. He sought out Zack’s hand and sucked on his fingers, pulling a moans from him. Then he kissed Aerith with abandon, holding onto her with a hand on her hip. 

Zack snapped more forcefully into him, making Cloud cry out in pleasure. He thrust back with equal force against him, and thrust into Aerith, making her lose herself as well, crying out too, and wrapping herself around him tighter as he pushed back. This also make Cloud squeeze around Zack, bring him closer right along with them. 

Then Aerith arched back and she was coming, pulsing around his cock. The sight of her and feel of both of them took him over the edge a few moments later. He buried himself deep inside her, felt Zack fucking him forcefully, and came so hard his vision was whiting out. 

When he could see again, he saw Aerith looked back at him blissfully. Zack lifted his hips higher and pounded harder into him, holding his hips firmly. Then he came, molded to his back, hugging his waist with one arm.

~

They all cuddled up together after. 

“Hey Zack,” Aerith called dreamily, “we know Cloud’s not interested in wearing a dress, but what about if I dressed in a cadet uniform? I still have mine from when we stowed away.”

Zack laughed in delight and thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, that would be really hot, Aerith.”

Cloud hadn’t thought about it. The cadet’s uniform isn’t exactly “men’s clothes” except for the fact that only guys are cadets. But, the idea of her wearing the uniform for them (and Cloud did see her in it on Rufus’ ship), was really cute…and hot. 

“No wait, even better,” Zack said with mounting enthusiasm, “wear a SOLDIER uniform.” 

“Yes!” Aerith agreed. 

Now Cloud was imagining her in his own SOLDIER uniform. So sexy. “I’ll lend you mine,” Cloud offered, his own excitement evident in his voice. 

She laughed, getting a little red at the attention. “You got it! You told me I could be a SOLDIER, Cloud. Now I’ll prove it.” Aerith winked at him, and they all smiled at each other. 

“See, Cloud? Can you start to understand why I want to see you in a dress?” Zack asked. 

Cloud rolled his eyes. “But the difference is I don’t want to.”

“Fine, fine,” he conceded, then put his attention back to Aerith. “He told you that you could be a SOLDIER? How charming of him!” 

“It was,” she agreed. “So Cloud,” she said, turning to him now, “did you remember that you liked guys when Andrea Rodea came on to you? Or did that remind you?”

“No, I knew,” Cloud told her. “Worried that it surprised me?”

“Let’s say ‘curious’ more than ‘worried’.”

“Nah. Knew since I was fourteen. My first guy crush was Sephi….” Cloud closed his mouth hard and his eyes went wide - in embarrassment and realization at the same time. The other two clearly put together what he was about to say. 

Before he could get stuck in the increased embarrassment that would no doubt result from either of them saying anything, he opted to voice his realization before they could say something. “He’s using that against me. He knows that, and how I admired him as a General, and he twists it as part of how he tries to get me join him.”

“Fuck,” Zack breathed out. 

Aerith looked troubled. “How terrible. It’s absolutely terrible for him to manipulate your feelings like that.” 

Put so starkly, Cloud couldn’t help but agree. 

“But at least you recognize it now. And that will take away from its power.” 

“Right,” he said, with more confidence than he felt. He kissed her in thanks, rubbed her face with his thumb.   
“He isn’t even him anymore. Just some asshole trying to get his way,” Zack told him.

The both of them were forever propping him up whenever he thought he might crumble. Cloud didn’t know how to thank them enough. 

He smiled crookedly and kissed Zack, too.


	8. Gongaga / Cosmo Canyon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team journeys to Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon, and some interesting things happen along the way!
> 
> Edit: Nanaki's name. Thanks Yra for pointing it out!

They were driving in their buggy through the grasslands, passing by the forests – Zack, Cloud, and Aerith. Barret, Tifa, Red, and the creepy robot cat that Cloud recruited were in the other – more like he recruited himself. He didn’t really trust how it went down, but let it go for now. Zack was too excited - returning home to Gongaga after all this time. Ten years. He was tapping on the window frame with his arm up as he drove. 

Things got rough back there in the Gold Saucer, though. Wound up in prison – blamed for the carnage Sephiroth left behind. Cloud getting upset that they went on a date when it turned out Sephiroth was still there and maybe they could have found him if they tried. They got themselves out of prison again, but not before Barret went through some shit. 

Zack felt for him. He was only ever trying to do right for him and his, but he lost his wife, and his buddy got all twisted up. Zack was in the SOLDIER program, he’s seen his share of good guys getting messed up. Not taking well to the mako treatments, or questioning what the hell they were doing to the point of losing themselves... 

Enough of that. To make himself feel better again, he thought about Cloud running the chocobo race that got them out of prison. What a weird place the Saucers is that that was possible. Now, he didn’t get to see that race himself - only Cloud was allowed up. But he saw him running other races the day before, and he could image the added determination on his face to free them. Super cute and sexy. 

~

They heard the roar of engines suddenly. Cloud listened closely. It was a lot of them. And none of them sounded like the other buggy the rest of the team was riding, making their own way to Gongaga. Cloud recognized the sound of motorcycles as he turned around to check it out. 

Yes, ten of them – that hot-head Roche in the lead – hair whipping behind him, huge grin on his face. Zack growled in annoyance, but didn’t change speed or course. 

Roche pulled ahead of the pack and up to Cloud’s window. Cloud looked back at him, nonplussed. Then Roche yelled over the wind, in that ultra-excited way of his, “So you’re still alive! And so am I. I’m ready for the next dance, pretty boy”, and laughed hysterically, peeling off again. 

“Friend of yours?” Zack asked, amused. 

“Third-class, Roche. We’ve met,” Cloud kept an eye trained on him. 

“And does he want to fight you or fuck you?” Zack asked teasingly. 

Cloud startled badly. 

“I bet both,” Aerith told them. 

“I’m getting a bike,” Cloud announced, eye trained now on a motorcycle right behind their buggy, and climbed out the window onto the roof in one smooth motion. 

“And it seems mutual,” Zack said loudly to Aerith in a way that Cloud could still hear.

The rider saw him and went for his holstered gun. 

Cloud ignored Zack’s comment and jumped - onto the bike, kicking the rider off solidly as he landed. He turned himself around in the seat quickly, careful to stay balanced. Success! Cloud settled into the seat comfortably, smirked ahead of him at Zack and Aerith, and heard them both whooping at him and laughing. 

Then he looked left to see Roche looking back at him with a satisfied smirk of his own. He lifted a challenging eyebrow and in the next moment, Roche cut close, ready to swipe at him with his sword, but Cloud cut the throttle in the last moment to get behind him and managed to ram him instead, and landing a shallow cut into his back with his sword. 

Roche let out a grunt of pain, then laughed with excitement. “You’ve been practicing! You must have really been doing all the shit they say you did, blondie! Don’t hold back,” he encouraged him. 

Zack and Aerith have been managing the other riders with magic, bursts of flame and lightning flashing all around the field.

He was satisfied they were doing fine, so now Cloud was all-in, focused on the ‘dance’. 

They zipped around the field, striking blows when they collided, until a burst of strength from Cloud threw Roche off his bike, landing hard, and sending him and his bike skidding across the grass in different directions. 

A part of him felt bad for Roche, so Cloud rode to where he landed and dismounted, to see how he was doing. 

“How embarrassing,” Roche said to him, rolling onto his back, still smiling a little. “As a rule, I usually leave before risking getting a face full of dirt. But I had direct orders.”

“From who?” Cloud asked kneeling down. 

“Scarlet. But it could have been any one of the execs. You’ve pissed them all off so hard.” Roche laughed like that amused him to no end. Maybe it did. Maybe he hated Shinra, too. And the idea of someone getting in their way seemed justified…Or he just loved chaos. 

“And what about you?” Cloud asked. “You still wanna work for those assholes?” Maybe, if he appealed to Roche, he might quit. It’s worth a shot. 

“That was the deal. Power for loyalty. Same for you, isn’t it. Or it should be.”

Cloud scoffed. “Loyalty doesn’t mean anything to them. They’ve proven it again and again. Do you know that they’re the ones that dropped the Sector 7 plate? What happened to Corel?” 

“I do.” Roche looked away. “Look at me though, can’t be anything else but a SOLDIER anymore. You see me running an item shop or something?” 

“Be a merc. S’what I did…Until I realized the most important that I can do it stop Shinra from messing up so many people’s lives. And killing the planet.”

“You believe in that shit?”

“I know it’s true.” 

Roche looked at him. “Well either way, you got me on my back. What now?” 

Cloud laughed. Zack’s words of ‘Does he want to fight you or fuck you?’ echoed in his mind. 

“That depends. Are you surrendering?”

“That depends. What will do with me if I do?” Roche countered suggestively. 

Ok, even Cloud can’t ignore that one. His lip twitched amusement. 

Just then, Zack pulled the buggy up next to them, and Zack and Aerith got out. 

Roche glanced at them, sighed and sat up. “I could lie and say you’ve changed my views, but lying isn’t my style. But…I can say I’ll think about it.”

“Alright,” Cloud accepted, and stood up. 

“Your bike wrecked?”

Roche sighed again. “Probably. But don’t you be worrying after me, my pride can’t take it.” Roche smiled small all the same. “See ya,” he said, waving as he was walking away. So that Cloud would have to stop him if he really wanted to keep him captive. 

“What are we, invisible?” Zack complained.

“Not everything is about you,” Cloud laughed. 

“What is he gunna think about?” Aerith asked.

“We were talking about him ditching Shinra. So, maybe he won’t bother us again.” 

They watched as Roche healed himself in the distance, and then kneeled down next to one of his downed men and healed him, too. 

“He’s mako-crazed. Living for the next fight, intense thrill-seeking, etc, etc. I’ve seen it before.” Zack commented. 

“Yeah,” Cloud agreed. He felt a bit bad for him. Mako had messed him up too, even if in a different way, so he could sympathize. “Wonder what he was like before his treatment.” 

“I think I remember him as a cadet. He always had a big personality - over-confident and loud. Now it seems like he took the biggest parts of himself and turned it to an 11. If he keeps this up, he’ll be dead in 6 months - maybe a year from now. It’s how it goes.”

Cloud knew it was a well-known risk of treatment in the first place, but he can’t help but hate Shinra even more for it.

Cloud got onto the bike he took. “I’m definitely keeping this,” he told them, settling in. 

“Ooo, can I get on?” Aerith asked?

“Sure.”

“And leave me all alone?” Zack complained. 

“I’ll go back to the buggy for the next stretch,” she promised. 

“Or you can take a bike too,” Cloud offered.

“The buggy’s more versatile. Someone has to be practical,” Zack said. “And why does it have to be me?”

“Let’s get the others over here. Tifa can drive the second buggy.”

“More vehicles? Now we’re getting into fuel issues.”

“This is boring, let’s go,” Cloud said. 

“How about I just get in a sled, and your boyfriend can pull me around on his motorcycle while I hold onto his gorgeous flowing ponytail,” Zack said with some exasperation. 

“Oh my god, you’re ridiculous,” Cloud told him.

Zack walked over to the buggy with a huff and got in. 

“He just needs some snuggles,” Aerith told Cloud, loud enough for Zack to hear. “Let’s not forgot to make him feel better later.”

Cloud smiled. And he saw Zack smile, too – breaking the tension.

~

They made it to Gongaga. Zack was home, after such a long, long time. Since he ran off to Midgar to become a SOLDIER. He had tried to find refuge here a year ago, too, but when he arrived he found it wasn’t safe. Shinra had beat him and Cloud here, so they had to find somewhere else to go.

He was recognized instantly by his neighbors walking around town. They barraged him with questions while someone ran to get his parents. He smiled wide as he talked. Zack also realized the relief he felt - that he had been wondering if his parents were still alright. As they approached, he could see for himself. They were older, yes, but healthy, and so happy to see him. Zack ran to them and hugged them both tight. 

“Those eyes…mako eyes. And you’re so tall,” his mom said as he looked him over. 

“It’s so good to see you, son,” his dad said enthusiastically. 

Zack smiled, big and sad-tinged. “It’s good to see you, too,” he replied to both of them and hugged them again. 

When they pulled away, his mom said, “You mentioned a girlfriend in one of your letters. Might this be her?”

“Yeah,” Zack said, with a surprised laugh, forgetting about that letter until she mentioned it. “This is Aerith.” It’s funny though, she wasn’t his girlfriend again until a few weeks ago. 

They greeted her warmly. 

“And a fellow SOLDIER, are you?” his dad asked, shaking Cloud’s hand. 

“Yeah. This is Cloud. My boyfriend.”

“Big city life, eh,” his dad bemoaned, but without any real bite to it. 

Zack laughed. “You know me – I dream big. But I challenge anyone that lives and breathes to resist liking either of them.” 

Aerith smiled at him. Cloud frowned, and Zack knocked him playfully in the shoulder to show him he shouldn’t take offence at his dad’s words. It worked somewhat anyway, and his frown lessened. Then Cloud said, “My mom would have probably said the same.”

“Cloud’s from the country, too.”

“Oh, where from?”

“Nibelheim.”

“Ah, I see it now,” she said, studying his features. 

“Where are you from Aerith?”

“Oh, Midgar.” 

“Well, it looks like some good things can come from Midgar, then,” she said to her. 

Aerith smiled at her, and said cheerily to his parents, “If it makes a difference, my mom’s probably gunna have a fit!” Made everyone laugh.

“Well, come home and have lunch - all of you,” his mom said invitingly, waving them toward the house. 

~

They all sat around the kitchen table, a generous amount of meat, veggies and bread spread on the table. The kind of spread Zack knew meant a special occasion growing up. The trio dug in right away. 

“What brings you home, Zack?” his dad asked.

“I wanted to come home sooner, but a lot’s happened,” he felt compelled to say. “I know it’s been a really long time.”

“There were a lot of Shinra folks crawling around about a year ago,” his mom commented. 

“Yeah, that was my fault. I hope it didn’t make things too difficult here for everyone.”

“No near as bad as what happened three years ago.”

“The reactor…I saw. We, me and Cloud, we…don’t work for Shinra anymore. We’re doing all we can to stop them, actually. The three of us, and there’s more of us that hung back out of town. It was a hard realization…coming to understand who exactly I’ve been working for. It tears me up to see what happened here. It’s happened in so many other places, too.”

“You’re fighting Shinra? Well, there may be no one better than their own. But, please, stay safe,” his dad said. 

“Hey, I plan on it. But it’s dangerous, I’m not gunna lie. Especially since Sephiroth is involved.”

His parents gasped. “That General. Isn’t he dead?”

“It turns out…he is not. Have you seen anyone that looks like him come through here? Long white hair, black clothes.”

“No. No out-of-towners came by lately besides you all.”

As if on cue, the sound of a helicopter coming in close could be heard.

“We’ll check it out,” Zack said to his parents, and then looked to Cloud and Aerith. 

~

That night, back in his parent’s house, Zack was a little off-put from running into the Turks after so long. And feeling pent-up anger at seeing Scarlet poking around the reactor ruins so unconcernedly. 

Cloud and Aerith soothed him as best they could, talked to his parents some more and went to Inn, since there wasn’t room at his house for all three of them. But anger never sticks to Zack - he was feeling better before too long. He’s also a very physical person, and Cloud’s kisses did even more to put him in a better mood.

Things got more heated, and Aerith said she wanted to sit this one out. To watch them. Knowing she was watching was actually a huge turn-on as Cloud and Zack undressed each other as they kissed and touched.

Aerith settled onto a nearby chair, legs up, and arms wrapped around herself. Cloud would look at her occasionally, which added to the heat he felt. 

And by the time Zack had his fingers inside him, Cloud saw that Aerith had her legs wider, and she was touching herself. 

And when he was fucking him into the mattress, Aerith’s clothes were gone now, too. Leg’s spread wider as she fingered herself and played with her clit, rubbing her breasts all the while. Cloud and Aerith locked eyes for a long moment and Cloud felt his orgasm build. 

Then he turned his attention solely back to Zack and let himself get lost in it, pushing back against him. 

They wound up with Cloud bent over the desk, and Zack was stroking him as he slammed into him, talking about how amazing Cloud was. Cloud couldn’t speak, just gasped and breathed harshly. 

“You’re beautiful, Aerith,” Zack told her.

“You two are so incredibly hot,” she answered, heated. 

When Cloud looked at Aerith again, she had a leg over the side of the chair and she looked close to coming. Body flushed and tensed, hand working rapidly on herself. Zack was hitting his spot with every hard thrust and it all pulled Cloud over the edge. He came, whispering both their names. 

Zack grabbed his hips harder and minute later he was coming into Cloud, forehead touching his back. 

In the silence caused by Cloud and Zack’s stillness in the aftermath, Cloud could hear Aerith panting, and the wet sound of her pleasuring herself. 

Zack pulled out of him, and when Cloud turned around he kissed him languidly. When they were done, they turned to Aerith, and Cloud was surprised by what he saw. 

Aerith was pumping a toy into herself, he could see the shaft of it moving in and out of her. But that wasn’t all. This toy had a fake dick coming out of it. She was grasping the base of it to move it insider herself, and it had straps attached to it that made it wearable. An unconscious noise escaped Cloud’s throat – surprise and arousal combined.

Zack walked over to her and knelt on his knees in front of her with an impish look on his face. Aerith looked back at him as she kept going. He grasped the toy and took over moving it for her. She closed her eyes and smiled, and moaned. Cloud could tell she was getting closer. 

Cloud walked over too, and bent down to suck on her neck from the side, her slightly salty with sweat. He made sure to be at angle so that he could still see what Zack was doing. 

When Aerith opened her eyes again to look at Zack, he stroked down the length of the dildo. They saw the way she looked rapped at his fingers. He grabbed the base, and slammed it into her. Aerith groaned. He did it again. Stroke and slam. Then he put it in his mouth, looking at her to gauge her reaction, and she was absolutely floored by it - and obviously really aroused. 

As he pumped it inside her now, it also moved in his mouth. 

“Oh my god,” Cloud breathed out. He realized he found it really arousing himself. 

Zack moved a little faster and deeper, and Aerith said, “Just like that!” and a few moments later, she was coming hard, yelling out, hands holding the arms of the chair tight. It went on and on. 

Zack continued until she was done, then sat up and laughed in excited delight. “Well, that was unexpected!”

“I can say the same thing!” she said emphatically back. “Ah, that was…so good.”

“You didn’t say you had this,” Zack coaxed, amused.

“I bought it, but was undecided about it. Until just now.” 

“And the rest of it?” he asked, indicating the dildo. 

“Well, obviously that would require discussion. But, seeing the two of you just now, I know, I would really like to use it.” 

Cloud was only now piecing together what “using it” really meant. And he didn’t know what to think about it. 

Aerith stood up and moved in front of Cloud, wrapped her arms around him, and said seductively, “What do you think, Cloud? Would you enjoy it?” 

Cloud blushed hard. Aerith kissed him, long and slow, and grabbed his ass possessively. Zack made a turned on noise in his throat. 

When they parted, he said, “Yeah.”

~

They were about to leave Cosmo Canyon in the morning and their spirits were high – and they were more resolved than ever to set things right. Nanaki learned about himself and his heritage. Aerith and Barret felt their connections to the planet deepen. Barret has always heard the cries of the planet too, said so from day one of meeting him. Now Cloud understood – felt the knowledge. It made him feel more connected to his team as well, the commitment they share. 

~

When they settled into their room at the Inn at Cosmo Canyon for the night, there was a resonant calm among Cloud, Aerith, and Zack. They held each other close and kissed freely, slowly shedding clothes as they went. 

When Aerith grabbed his butt and brushed his hole with her fingers, a thrill went through Cloud. Because he remembered what they had talked about it in Gongaga. 

“Put on Cloud’s shirt,” Zack requested of Aerith. 

Soon she had on his shirt and nothing else (too late for the whole uniform, but maybe next time), and Cloud and Zack were already naked. Cloud liked how she looked in his shirt, the way in contoured her chest but hung loose at the waist, her nipples poking out.

They went back to kissing, and Aerith pushed a slick finger into Cloud - he kissed her harder. She worked him open and Zack rubbed him - and stroked his dick. 

Aerith got up and put the strapon on, and Zack pushed Cloud to lay on his back and sucked his dick. Aerith sat herself against the headboard and when Zack pulled his head up, Cloud kissed him and then moved to straddle Aerith, and kissed her. 

Cloud sunk onto her strapon, holding her shoulders and giving her a smoldering look. Aerith looked fucked out already at watching him. He rocked against her experimentally and they both moaned. It felt good. Zack stroked Cloud’s dick as they began to move together, adding to Cloud’s arousal. They were slow movements, to get used to it, and as if to savor the moment. 

As Cloud felt more heated he picked up the pace. And he reached out with one hand and stroked Zack. 

When the mood struck him, Cloud turned around and faced Zack, and sat on Aerith from the other way, kissing him hard and fisting his cock, as Zack did the same. And Aerith continued to thrust up into him. 

Then Cloud got on his knees and leaned forward onto one arm, still holding Zack’s dick.

Aerith pushed solidly into Cloud again, and moaned as the strapon pushed back into her. Now that he was thinking about it, it was a little bigger than he was used to, and felt more realistic than he thought it would. Cloud started moving and they both moaned. 

Cloud asked Zack to sit up on his knees and led Zack’s dick into his mouth (he really did enjoying using his mouth) - swallowed him down and sucked him. Zack groaned. 

When Aerith thrust into him, it pushed his mouth deeper onto his dick. Cloud moaned deep. He found he absolutely loved being between them both. Loved it every time. 

Aerith and Zack both went deeper into him as they both leaned toward each other and kissed heatedly, making them all three of them moan. 

When he got impatient, he pushed hard against Aerith and then as he moved back sucked hard on Zack, gaining their attention. Aerith went back to thrusting into him and Zack started fucking into his mouth and Cloud started to unravel. 

Cloud let go as he got fucked senseless, and it felt so good. Aerith grabbed his swollen cock and pumped him in time. Cloud was crying out in pleasure around Zack’s cock, holding onto Zack’s waist with one hand to ground himself. Zack gripped Cloud by the hair. 

Aerith was hitting his prostate over and over now and soon he was coming, spilling over her hand and onto the bed. Yelling out as Zack pulled out of his mouth, but kept his hands in his hair. Aerith kept moving until he was done. 

Cloud collapsed and turned onto his back when they released him. With half-lidded eyes, he saw Zack pounce enthusiastically on top of Aerith, asked if he could take the strapon off with a persuading heat to his voice, threw it to the side, and thrust into her deep. 

~

The next morning, as they packed their bags, the world suddenly changed. He was in Nibelheim again, but it wasn’t burning this time. It was peaceful. Just the way he remembered it. Sephiroth was suddenly in front of him, looking benignly back at him. 

“What do you want?” Cloud asked.

“You, Cloud, but you already know that.” 

Cloud stared him down. 

“You’re not too far from your home town. You should visit.”

“You burned it down.”

“Did I?”

Cloud didn’t answer. 

“Go. It may just convince you that humanity doesn’t deserve to be saved.”

“Are you there? I’ve killed you once, and I’ll do it again.”

“You cannot kill me. Not really. Though…a cadet getting the best of me like that, it was surprising.”

“A SOLDIER, your comrade,” Cloud corrected.

Sephiroth gave him a knowing look. “No, Cloud. You have never been a SOLDIER. You’ve never been anyone at all.”

“Liar.” But doubt still took hold in Cloud’s mind. Because his memories are scattered, and often fuzzy. Could he be telling the truth?

“Zack Fair was a SOLDIER, a comrade. But you…” Sephiroth strode closer. “You are part of me, and that is all.” 

A shiver ran though Cloud. 

“You feel it. I know you do.” He took another step. 

“A part of you? Even you aren’t you.”

“I’ve been enlightened, but I’m still me,” he countered. “And I’ll make you see the truth as well.” 

And it was all gone. Sephiroth, Nibelheim. Replaced with their room at the Inn. Looks of horror on Aerith and Zack’s faces. 

Cloud slumped to the ground, and fought to gain his bearings again. 

~

Ten minutes later, and the three of them were sat in their room. Cloud held a warm cup of tea that Aerith gave him. 

“Was it him? Was it Sephiroth?” Zack asked. 

“Yeah.” 

“What did he want?”

“He says to go to Nibelheim.”

“Well, that makes me not want to go to Nibelheim.”

“Am I…Was I never a SOLDIER?” 

Zack looked guilty, and said, “No, Cloud. I didn’t want to remind you too quickly, though of course I planned to. I mean, you’re as good as one now. But the way you remember yourself before and during what happened in Nibelheim seems to be a bit off.”

Cloud was floored. Sephiroth was telling the truth? And Zack was keeping the truth from him? “You should have told me.” He couldn’t look at Aerith. At either of them. He felt like a fraud. Maybe he was no one…

“Cloud,” Aerith got his attention and took his hand in hers. “You’re still you.” How does she do that?

“How do I know?”

“Because I know you. And Zack knows you. And Tifa knows you. And we all know that you’re you.”

“So much is fuzzy about the past, it just feels like I’m floating most of the time.” 

“I met you when you were fourteen,” Zack started, kindly, “I thought you were the sweetest kid. And so enthusiastic about being a SOLDIER. We had some missions together over the next two years, and we always got along really well. Want me to tell you about it?”

Cloud nodded, feeling lost. Zack got comfortable sitting up against the headboard of the bed, and beckoned Cloud closer. Cloud did, and lay his head on his chest and listened to stories about himself. 

“I’ll tell the others to go on ahead, and we’ll leave in a little while,” Aerith told them. When she came back, she got comfortable next to them and listened. 

Cloud couldn’t remembering anything of what Zack told him, but even though he wasn’t a SOLDIER like he thought, it didn’t sound too bad. He had friends, and people he looked up to. 

Or maybe he only thinks it doesn’t sound bad because he wound up as strong as a SOLDIER anyway. It sounds like both the past him and the current him would be devastated by never having made it. 

Then he remembered Aerith’s words, that maybe this, what they were doing right now, is living his dream. 

Maybe. But man does it also suck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Nibelheim!


	9. Nibelheim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud, Zack, and Aerith address their own lingering hangups, then confront Sephiroth in Nibelheim - and deal with the fallout. This leads to some comforting moments, and meaningful admissions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to keep the previous chapter in a light and fun tone, so I saved the deeper moments for this chapter, and it wound up quite long. I hope you enjoy it :)

Cloud rode his bike through the rest of the morning, next to Aerith and Zack in the buggy. He tried not to worry too much about what he just learned, just wanted to drive. Sometimes he circled the buggy for fun, making Zack and Aerith laugh. But the terrain was bumpier and he couldn’t go as fast as he wanted. Well, there was fun in maneuvering as fast he could without getting thrown off, too.

He knew he shouldn’t be mad at Zack for holding back information. Not telling him he wasn’t a SOLDIER. He didn’t mean any harm. In fact, he was thinking of Cloud by doing so. It still hurt though. They should probably talk about it. 

He’s never been in a serious relationship before them. Any relationship at all, actually. But, he thought holding things in was probably a bad idea. He didn’t think he’d be able to sleep that night otherwise. 

But there was more, too, that they were holding back. Why did Zack get all pissy after the fight with Roche? Well, pissy for him. He was still pleasant about it - making a joke. 

Cloud had to admit that he was being an ass, calling Zack’s concerns boring. But Zack usually understood where Cloud was coming from, he thought. He didn’t ever get annoyed with it before. But Cloud knew he could do better. 

And the way Zack’s joke included Roche. Was he…jealous? Sure, Cloud rose to the challenge of a good fight. And tried to get through to him after. Even managed to catch the flirting Roche was throwing his way, now that Zack pointed it out. Cloud had been surprised, and once he recognized it, he could see the harmless fun in it and laughed. But it’s not like it meant anything. Maybe Zack needs to hear that?

He wondered if Aerith was able to reassure Zack. She catches on to these things. But, Cloud needs to stop depending on her and Zack to make up for his social blindspots. Here too, he can do better.

They met the team for a lunch break, deciding to go to Nibelheim after all - and also so the other buggy didn’t have to be so cramped. Barret would be switching buggies after their meal.

Cloud pulled Zack aside when they finished eating, and everyone else was still talking. They walked a distance away toward the narrow beach and sat looking out at the water on the West coast. 

“What’s up buttercup?”

Cloud laughed, then looked back at him more seriously. “Sorry I’m a jerk,” he started.

Zack looked surprised. “What makes you say that?”

“I was thinking about it,” Cloud started idly running his fingers through the sand, “the way I got impatient with you to get going after the motorcycle fight. I think the adrenaline made me want to keep moving. But also, maybe I take you’re forgiveness for granted. I didn’t need to be rude about it.” Cloud knew he wouldn’t say things that gruff to Aerith, so why did he think it was ok with Zack?

Now Zack looked even more surprised, and hugged him hard, “Oh my god, you’re the sweetest guy in the world.” Then he paused a moment and said, “Everyone loses their patience sometimes, especially under pressure like we are. And you and Aerith gave me those snuggles that night. It more than made up for it!” He laughed, “And I lost my patience too, remember.”

“Because of what I said,” Cloud said, “I still feel bad about it.”

“Well then, you’re forgiven,” he said with a smile and kissed him. 

“And, did you not like the way I ran off to fight Roche?”

Zack laughed, a little embarrassed this time. “I got a little sensitive, since I was already annoyed. It’s fine to have fun in a fight. Most SOLDIERs do.”

“Turns out he was flirting,” Cloud admitted. “I didn’t know until you pointed it out.” 

“You’re so oblivious,” Zack teased. “At least about that stuff.”

“Unless I like them back, apparently. Wound up with you, didn’t I?” 

They both laughed. 

Cloud let the levity wash over him a moment, then said, “There’s something else, too, a bit more serious.”

Zack nodded for him to go on, smile smaller but still there.

“I know why you didn’t tell me about my past right away, but it still hurts that you didn’t. And that’s all mixed up with the embarrassment I feel about it all. Confidently living a lie that you and Tifa knew wasn’t even true. And for Sephiroth to throw it in my face made it worse. That’s why I said you should have told me. I might not have taken it well before, but finding out through him is even worse.”

Zack’s face transformed as he spoke, and now he looked about as serious as he’s even seen him. “I think that confidence is what got you this far. You had no doubt in your mind that you could accomplish things that you’d actually never done before. I don’t regret letting you hold on to that for a little longer. But I’m so sorry that my decision hurt you.”

Cloud’s soreness about it softened at his words, and yet, “That’s just it, you decided something about me on your own. You and Tifa…”

“Both of us care about you a lot.”

“I know…”

“In hindsight, maybe I could have said something a little sooner, but we can’t live that way. I did what I thought was best at the time. You do it, too, Cloud. You decide where we’re going, and we all follow. We’re going to Nibelheim, even though I have my doubts. Sure we all talk about it, but in the end it’s you making the decisions. They’ll be imperfect decisions sometimes, but we don’t have the luxury of perfection.”

And then Cloud got it. And it gave him an entirely new perspective on what they were all doing. “Yeah. I get what you’re saying now.” Cloud’s heart was full. “Thanks, Zack.” And he hugged him. 

“But now, you don’t need the lie,” Zack went on. “You have real experience to pull from. You know what you can do.”

Cloud hugged him tighter.

Cloud could hear Aerith’s steps on the sand as she walked over to them. She sat on Cloud’s other side, and when he looked at her, she said, “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

“No,” Cloud said, smiling at her invitingly. 

“It’s just,” Aerith bit her bottom lip and looked at each of them. “I’ve been wondering for a while now, but was afraid to ask. Do you both…resent that I know things that I’m not saying? Cloud, you especially. And I want you to know that I don’t want to hold things back…but I have to. Because I’m afraid that things would happen differently if I didn’t.”

“Aerith,” Cloud said, voice soft, “I don’t resent you.” He thought maybe the way he got upset with Zack for not speaking up made her think so, but it was different in her case. What she knew was outside of normal knowledge, or something like that. And, Cloud was afraid to know what she knew anyway. “And honestly, I don’t know if I can handle it, to know what you know.” For a moment, Cloud could see the way it weighed on her, in her expression and way her shoulders sagged before she picked herself back up. Was it too much for her as well? “Do you need to talk about it? For your own sake?”

Aerith’s expression bloomed with so much affection, “I…I’ll be ok, Cloud. And if that changes, I’ll let you know. I promise.” She held out her pinky, and Cloud belated realized he should do the same. He put out his pinky too, and Aerith linked them together in a promise. 

“You’re both so cute I could burst,” Zack commented affectionately. Aerith laughed and Cloud looked back at him in surprise. “And Aerith, we trust you, so don’t worry about that. And the same thing we told Cloud before applies to you too – lean on us when you need to.”

“Got it,” Aerith replied, and hugged the both of them. “One more thing, Cloud,” she said when she pulled away. “What did you mean before, when you said you were floating?”

Cloud got uncomfortable. “It’s just, not knowing about the past, makes me feel like I don’t know who I am now either. Like I’ve been making it up. But, the way you said that you, Zack, and Tifa know me, makes me feel a little better about it. I think…I still need to talk to Tifa though.” 

“I’m sure she’ll be happy to,” Aerith said.

“Don’t give her a hard time for holding things back, alright?” Zack said. 

“No promises,” Cloud said, “but, I know she must have meant well too, just like you.

When they headed out, Zack got on the bike behind Cloud. 

“Looks like I’m taking your place in the buggy, Porcupine!” Barret yelled to Zack. Aerith was already at the wheel and waving to them. 

~

Cloud and Zack tore up the west coast over bumpy terrain and all – laughing through it, Zack holding onto his waist. Until the land got steeper and they could see the mountains grow larger. 

Nibelheim. His hometown. Burnt to the ground by Sephiroth. 

They had debated going in, since Sephiroth insisted that Cloud go. But Cloud needed to know what there was to find there. He felt disjointed, and he wanted to piece himself back together. 

Zack had personal reservations of his own. He remembered everything that happened here, and their time in the lab. But he decided to stay right by his side, to help Cloud. Zack gave him his account of what happened five years ago as they drove slowly on the approach. 

And that’s when Cloud realized he had superimposed himself in Zack’s place in his own mind. When they took a short break, he told the team as much. 

~

They entered town, and were shocked to find it a lively un-burnt town. What?.....

And the people, Cloud and Tifa didn’t know any of them. They talked to people and they acted like they’ve always lived here. Except Cloud knows they haven’t…

Cloud turned to Tifa. “The town…did burn…didn’t it?”

“Yeah. I don’t understand.” She ran to her house and barged inside, only to come back a moment later, face fallen in confusion and disappointment. Cloud went inside and scanned the empty first floor of the house. No one was home, but it looked nothing like it did when Tifa lived here. He went up the stairs to the send floor. So different. There was a man in a black cloak standing in the corner. He looked ill, unfocused, said Sephiroth’s name longingly. He had a number tattooed on his arm, just like the man in Midgar that had become Sephiroth. Then he said, “Reunion.” 

A pulse of yearning went through Cloud’s body. And he knew that that feeling of being drawn to Sephiroth was connected to what this guy meant by ‘Reunion’. This man felt it too, but was enslaved by it. Could that happen to him?

Cloud checked on his own house next. It looked the same structurally, but the decoration was all different. It wasn’t his house. Strangers stared back at him - and Tifa, who had come with him. 

Cloud questioned the family living there, a mother and father with a young daughter, but they insisted it’s been their family home for generations. 

Tifa withheld the truth he wasn’t a SOLDIER as well, Cloud knew, just like Zack did. She didn’t correct him back in Kalm. Was she doing the same thing now? Playing along with his delusions?

Cloud walked back to the town square, at a loss of what to do or think. He pulled Tifa aside, not sure if this was the best time since she was pretty rattled herself, but Cloud had to know. “Tifa, I talked to Zack and I know I was never a SOLDIER, though I don’t remember it.”

Tifa looked striken and guilty. Cloud pressed on, “Is there something else I don’t know because you want to protect me? Did I really live here? I need to know.”

“What? Cloud, of course you did,” Tifa answered him. 

Zack came over to them quickly, seeing their distress. “What is it? What’s inside?” They told him what they saw.

“Cloud’s questioning whether he really lived here. Of course he did. Zack, you know it, too,” she prompted.

“Yeah, you definitely lived here, Cloud. It’s why you were picked for the mission. You invited me to your house for dinner, though we never got the chance…”

Cloud nodded, and settled with the knowledge. “I’m sorry, Tifa,” he said to her, “its…” he didn’t know how to finish - to explain the way he thought he might be no one for a moment. 

All he could do was float, because there was so much he didn’t remember, and even the things he did weren’t clear. Not clear like everything has been since he woke up from the haze. Well, at least he had that. 

“Let’s go to the mansion,” Zack, said, subdued, once Cloud had calmed. 

Aerith had wanted to go with them, but Cloud and Zack said that they wanted to go alone as they explored the past. As a compromise, she would wait right outside the front door of the building. They passed more cloaked men as they walked toward it, yearning in their pale, gaunt faces as well. 

It was obvious that no one has lived in the Shinra mansion for a long time. There was dust everywhere, and faded tapestries. Items were left out of place - never to be put away. Cloud remembered how it looked so professionally clean and well-appointed before. 

They did a quick search of the first and second levels, and there was nothing but cobwebs and monsters to meet them. Then they headed to the basement. Both Zack and Cloud knew the way, and Cloud noticed the way Zack took note of Cloud’s knowledge, as if trying to gauge his memory.

They descended the steps together, Zack in the lead, going slow and scanning for danger. It wasn’t just their past demons they were wary of. Sephiroth himself, or something left by him, could be there to greet them. 

They checked the entire basement, and except for one locked room, they cleared it. 

Cloud took in the tanks that he didn’t do more than glance at in the first sweep. Tanks. Two of them. He knew they likely belonged to him and Zack, but he had no personal memory of it. All he remembered of this room was the way he had appealed to Sephiroth when he was losing it. 

Zack looked like he recognized them though. He looked scared. Likely remembering what it was like. 

Cloud moved closer to the tank Zack was looking at, and was able to read something scratched into the glass from the inside – a note about making a move during feeding time. Shit. Cloud got goosebumps. 

Zack’s face contorted into pure hatred. He took his sword from his back, and Cloud stepped back, and Zack used it to hit the glass. It crunched as Zack made a sword-shaped hole in the tank, halfway through. Cloud backed up some more while Zack swiped at it again, cutting a slice through the thing. 

Cloud put a hand gently on his shoulder, not knowing if he wanted to be touched right now. It seemed to calm Zack some, though. They stood there for a while, until Zack’s face crumpled and he hugged Cloud hard. Cloud put a hand around his waist, and another in his hair, while Zack buried his face in the crook of his neck. 

Zack cried - and Cloud let him. 

After what must have been a long time, Zack pulled back and said, “It’s probably better you don’t remember, honestly.” Cloud squeezed him tighter and then they let go. 

“Let’s look at the rest of this place, there were some notes on the desk in the other room,” Cloud suggested. 

Zack nodded.

They scanned through what turned out to be detailed notes about the two of them. And there it was, written out, that Jenova cells took hold in Cloud – with ‘high susceptibility’ but ultimately resulted in ‘failure’ - but didn’t work for Zack. The hypothetical was hard enough to deal with. Now that he saw the proof, it was really hard to take. Well, he always wanted to be special…

“Am I still human?” he asked himself out-loud.

Zack paled and looked at him. “Of course you are!” he said vehemently. “Please, don’t think that. It’s just what Sephiroth said when he was down here.” Zack closed the book forcefully and threw it against a bookshelf, looking desperate. “Let’s get out of here.”

Zack led him out of the room by the hand. 

Yes, Cloud remembered Sephiroth down here, too. Those details in his head might be wrong, though. “I don’t know what’s real,” he said, a little panicked now. 

Zack stopped them and put his hands on both of Cloud’s shoulders. Looked him square in the eye. “Tell me what you remember,” he ordered. 

Cloud did, and Zack let out a breath of relief. “That’s an easy one. You were here too, but I was the one talking to Sephiroth.”

That’s right, Zack told him that when they were on the bike. Cloud nodded his understanding, and let out a breath of his own. “Yeah, let’s go.” 

They were moving again and when they reached the central room where the tanks were, Sephiroth himself was there to greet them. 

Shock overtook Cloud for a moment – he had been too far in his own head before now but he pulled himself out of it. 

Aerith suddenly came down the steps, and didn’t seem entirely surprised to see Sephiroth there. Could she feel him? She gave him a stern look, and glanced at Cloud and Zack to make sure they were ok, before staring the former General down again. 

~

“What do you think of your hometown, Cloud?” Sephiroth asked as if Zack and Aerith weren’t there.

“It’s…I don’t know what happened.”

“Shinra covered up what happened here, as if nothing was ever the matter. As if those townsfolk never were.”

“You’re what happened,” he said with malice. 

“What Shinra does is why it happened. You’ve read the notes here. Weren’t you justly distressed not moments ago for what they did to you? Humans are despicable, and not worthy of this planet. That is what I want you to understand,” Sephiroth said calmly and confidently, with a hint of distaste. 

“The people that lived here before you killed them didn’t deserve to die. Most people aren’t like Shinra.”

“Shinra is comprised of people. Like the townsfolk willing to pretend - that live here now.”

“It is you that’s despicable,” Zack called out.

Sephiroth turned to him for the first time. “You owe me your thanks, Zack, I’ve given you life - when you should have died outside of Midgar.”

“The fuck are you talking about.”

“It was a close call, wasn’t it? It could have gone either way. But I made sure you survived. It’s too bad you and Cloud were separated, however.” 

There was something curious in the way he said that. “Why do you say that? Why do you care about me now when you cut me down before?” Zack asked. 

“Because, I thought perhaps Cloud would not become Cloud if he had you to lean on. The fates intervened on that score, however, and you were separated. But, you have found each other again. I wonder if you’re still a source of weakness to him.” He looked to Cloud now, “You’re too comfortable. At least make this sporting, Cloud.” 

Was Cloud too weak? Should he be stronger? He didn’t know how he could possibly win against Sephiroth in the first place. No one in the world rivaled his power. 

“I think you’re scared,” Aerith told Sephiroth. “There are things in play that weren’t supposed to happen, and you worry about what will come of it. So you try to drive a wedge between Cloud and us.”

“You think too much of yourself, Cetra. I know just what to do with you.” 

“You stay away from her,” Cloud yelled ferociously, sword pointed at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth gave him a secret smile, then said, “I know how to truly hurt this world. If you want to know more, follow me North,” and he was gone. 

“Fuuuuuuck,” Zack exclaimed. 

~

The three of them decided to go to the Inn. Both Cloud and Zack were a wreck, and Aerith had them go ahead while she explained to the group what happened in the mansion. When she was done, she said she needed to join the two, and Tifa urged her on her way. 

When Aerith entered their room, she clicked the door closed quietly and saw that both Zack and Cloud had supporting hands on each other – Zack on Cloud’s back and Cloud and Zack’s leg - at the end of the bed, staring into space. 

They both looked at her and smiled a little. She was glad to be a comfort to them. 

“Are you both ok?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Cloud said, voice low, “I just, need a minute a think.” He breathed out slow.

“Take all the time you need,” she said to the both of them. Zack nodded. He looked like he needed it too. She sat in the chair against the wall, and waited patiently, taking the time to process things herself. 

Ok, so. Sephiroth was obviously still interested in recruiting Cloud. That wasn’t surprising. 

He was taking the time to lay out proof to Cloud that he was a force of good…. 

Now, she knew that at some point, Cloud will help Sephiroth. She saw a vision of him giving the Black Materia to him. There was no way in the world she was telling anyone about that unless she becomes certain it will help them. Which she is not convinced of at all at this point. 

But what she does know is that talking to Cloud seems to be important to him. Does it make his manipulations easier? Either by Cloud agreeing on some level, or by pure familiarity? She had no answer, but she felt it was important to consider. She was hopeful that the right answer to finishing Sephiroth for good might present itself eventually if she knows what to look for – and that that piece of information might help her find it. 

The next thing she considered was that she learned that Sephiroth saved Zack’s life. Not for any sense of long-since comradery, but because Sephiroth believes that if they had gone to Midgar together Cloud wouldn’t be the adversary to Sephiroth that he is now. She had no way of knowing if that would have been true. Did Sephiroth think having support was a weakness? 

A common thread she’s seeing is that Sephiroth is being much more aggressive than how it’s ‘supposed’ to be. And he’s trying new things to see what will help him. 

Zack spoke softly, gently taking her from her thoughts, “So, I should be dead right now?”

It broke Aerith’s heart. But that feeling was replaced quickly with a resolve to not let him think so. That same sense of taking things into their own hands that she felt when she told Cloud that they could defeat fate’s will, if they chose it. And they did. “No, babe. Like I’ve said before – there is no ‘should be.’ And you’re “exactly where you need to be”.”

“You knew,” Cloud realized as he said it, and looked at her searchingly. “Aerith. What you said. And you were so surprised to see him. You knew.”

“I suspected. But no, I didn’t know. And even if I did, I wouldn’t have said anything. But, what Sephiroth said, that he was the influence that saved your life – I had not guessed at that at all. But, Zack, please don’t think that you should be gone, because it’s not true.” 

Zack nodded, but Aerith knew it would take more time for him to come to terms with it. She sat next to him and hugged him tight. And he wrapped his arms around her as well and molded to her, hugging back hard. Cloud sat closer behind him and hugged him too, and Zack sighed out the pain of it. 

They stayed that way a while, until Cloud spoke up next, still wrapped around Zack’s back, “I didn’t feel like myself for a minute down there. Thank you, Zack, for snapping me out of it.”

Zack turned around to face him with worried eyes. “Does it still bother you, the Jenova cells?”

“I think I can learn to deal with it. And I knew on a certain level before today that it must be true. I mean you told me. But to know it like this is - different.”

“When Sephiroth showed up, I thought, there couldn’t be a worse time for that. And then I realized that was by design. He set us up to see what happened and let you feel messed up from it, before appearing. And pretty much said, ‘See, humans suck. They should all die.’ 

Cloud laughed sadly at Zack’s summation of what Sephiroth did. 

“But it turns out I didn’t need to worry. Not about you anyway, though he threw me for a loop. No. If anything, confronting him brought you back to yourself. You were fucking fierce, Cloud.” Zack smiled at him. 

Aerith thought so too, and she let it show in her face when he looked at her. 

“Why the shattered glass?” Aerith asked next. “It was like that when I got there.”

“That was me,” Zack said. “Fighting demons, I guess. The ones you can’t see.”

“Did it help?”

“Yeah. Even though the lab’s abandoned, now no one else can use them. It makes me feel a little better.”

“You were fierce, yourself,” Cloud told Aerith. 

“You shut Sephiroth down!” Zack agreed. ‘No bitch, you’re the one that’s scared!’ Aerith laughed heartily. Cloud looked at her admiringly. He didn’t shrink back even for a second himself, even though a part of him feared Sephiroth. 

Thinking on Zack’s joke, she decided the more they tore down Sephiroth’s beliefs, and the more they made fun of him, the more at ease it will put Cloud – and the rest of them. Sephiroth was still leagues stronger than them. But, Sephiroth also needed them. And she believed that they would become strong enough to stop him. 

The levity eased the mood in the room, but Cloud still needed to let it all out, Aerith thought. His posture was still ill-at-ease, and quite sad. 

“How are you feeling now, Cloud?”

“Better. But, all this dredged up what happened to Nibelheim. What Sephiroth did here.” His expression turned grieved. “To everyone I grew up with, even though I never got along with most of them. And to Tifa, and her dad. To my mom,” he finished on a breath. He looked like he was holding back from crying. 

“It’s ok to grieve, Cloud,” she told him. 

Cloud went over to her, sat between her and Zack, and buried his face her chest, and she wrapped her arms around him lovingly, cheek against his head. He’s never sought comfort like this from her before. It warmed her heart that she could comfort him, that he could open up with her.

Aerith squeezed him tighter, and he let out a sob. A tear fell from her own cheek in answer. She kissed his head, and a dam broke in Cloud and he cried harder burying himself further into her and holding tight. 

She rubbed his back rhythmically as he cried. Zack hugged around the both of them, a look of profound compassion on his face, and put his forehead on the side of Cloud’s head, and closed his eyes. 

Had Cloud ever let himself properly grieve before? Maybe he hasn’t. Not for his mom and neighbors, or for himself. She was crying steadily now. 

When she looked to Zack, he looked back at her without raising his head, and their faces were quite close. She could see the grief pouring out of him too now, tears trailing down his own cheeks. She wiped some away gently - with her palm on his cheek, moving her thumb. They exchanged looks. Then they settled back toward Cloud, who still crying so hard. 

It went on for a long time, and Aerith thought that maybe once he started, that Cloud wound up crying for everything. Sephiroth’s torments, Midgar, lost friends, lost memories, lost time. So much loss. And yet he still had so much. She would have to make a point of reminding him of what he had – at the right time. 

She knew the ‘should-be Cloud’ suffered so much, and was so bereaved that it was crippling. Maybe she and Zack were changing that. She certainly hoped so. 

After a while, she noticed the door open and Tifa’s concerned face peeped inside. Aerith mouthed, “It’s ok,” to her and used her arm in gesture to indicate she could (or should) go. She nodded her understanding, looked at Cloud briefly one more time, and left. 

It was over and hour before Cloud’s cries slowed. But they did, gradually, until they stopped. 

Aerith lay back with pillows behind her, and had him follow on top of her, so that he could lay that way on her chest.

“That looks so comfortable,” Zack commented, sidling up next to them. “Remind me to lay on you like that.” He threw an arm over Cloud and played with his hair. Cloud’s eyes were closed now, and his breathing was slowing. Aerith smiled at Zack. He was falling asleep, looking quite peaceful. Zack sat next to her, and put his head over hers, still running his hands through Cloud’s hair. 

When she was sure Cloud was asleep, she said, “I think he really needed that.”

“He definitely did. Everyone needs a good cry once in a while. Especially with all that he’s been through.” He paused and said, “I wish I could make it easier for him.”

“We are,” Aerith asserted. 

Zack kissed her then, with so much affection it took her breath away. 

~

They all wound up falling asleep, and about an hour later, Cloud’s stirring woke Aerith, and then Zack woke too. After checking the time, nearly dinner time, she suggested they go get something to eat. 

They took their time in their grogginess getting ready, and when they were done, Cloud looked a lot better. She kissed his cheek, making his smile small, and they headed out. Everyone else was already downstairs at the Inn, having some drinks and eating dinner, and the three joined them. 

Aerith sat next to Tifa. “What did we miss?” Aerith joked. 

Tifa laughed, “We were waiting for you guys.”

So as they ate, Cloud and Zack told the team all that happened. 

“He’s leading us by the leash,” Red said about Sephiroth’s directing them where to go once again. 

But they all agreed they had no other choice but to follow. 

~

They went back up to their room after, confident in the plan to keep on moving, heading North through Mt. Nibel. 

Seeing Cloud’s determined face made her remember how he defended her so vehemently to Sephiroth earlier. It was more than flattering, and in fact was extremely sexy. His bark of ‘Don’t touch her,’ had reverberated through her, and took root within her, settling into her soul. And later, the shared determination between her and Zack as they comforted Cloud together had done the same. That became part of her, too. 

Aerith walked over to Cloud, looked into his eyes, and said, “I’ll never forget how you defended me today.” Aerith doesn’t like the roll of damsel in distress, but that’s not what that was anyway. She didn’t need his help per se, but the resulting effect showed her how much he cared for her. 

Cloud’s eyes widened and then he smiled at her, small and genuine, full of love. 

Aerith kissed him, so tender, and he answered it with equal tenderness. When they parted, he whispered, “I love you.” Aerith’s breath stuttered. He’s still always surprising her with his openness. 

“I love you, too,” she replied easily. He kissed her again, and a tear trailed down Aerith’s cheek. 

Zack had turned to them when they started talking, and wore a gently surprised expression now. Until it softened, and he walked over to them. By the time he got to them he looked ready to burst, and looked at both of them. He kissed Cloud long and slow, holding his head, and then said, “You’re amazing Cloud. I love you – so much. I’ve known it for a while. And I hope you don’t think I’m just saying it because I heard the two of you.”

Cloud was deeply affected, “Zack, I love you, too. And, I think if I didn’t know that I did, I wouldn’t have said so to Aerith in front of you.” Zack smiled at him and kissed him again.

Aerith felt the love between the two of them – and all of them. Why not complete the circle of affection that Cloud started by saying so to Zack? - It was true, she did love him. 

When their kiss parted, Aerith took Zack’s hand and he looked at her as she placed it over her heart. “Zack, I’m so glad that we found each other again. We were in love once already – but this, is so much more. I love you – more than I even have.” 

Zack smiled and swept her in his other arm. “Aerith,” he scanned her face, “I feel the same way. It hurt so much when I learned how long I had been gone – away from you. But I’m here now, and I love you so much.” 

Aerith pulled his head down as she raised her own, and kissed him. 

The mood turned giddy with their admissions. It had the effect of staving off the darker feelings that might have otherwise lingered in them all. 

They each took showers. The stall wasn’t very big so they took turns, but they all barged into each other’s shower-time anyway for a fun few minutes before leaving again. 

Aerith was the second to finish up, leaving Cloud in the shower, and joining Zack in the room - wearing a towel wrapped around her. Zack had a towel slung low on his hips, revealing the sexy divots in his skin that led a trail lower, as he looked out the window toward the mountain. 

“Hope you’re ready for a workout tomorrow. The mountains are no joke. I bet Cloud’ll have no problem, though, bounding up there like a mountain-goat.” 

Aerith laughed, wrapped her arms around Zack’s waist from behind affectionately, and replied, “I’d rather focus on the workout I’ll get tonight, babe.”

He laughed delightedly. “What, think you can drop the L-word and you’ll get into my pants? Or – towel?”

“Oh, I’m betting on it,” she played along, smacking his ass. Zack growled in excitement, spun around and grabbed her butt firmly in turn. He kissed her and played with the knot keeping her towel up. She smiled at his reactions, then says, “C’mon let’s wait for Cloud.”

“You started it.”

“You weren’t supposed to keep going,” she laughed. She kissed his cheek, hoping the gentleness would cool his jets some, and pulled away – getting her comb, and started combing through her hair. She could see how flushed she was, and she couldn’t stop smiling. 

Cloud came out of the bathroom and flopped onto the bed. Despite the nap earlier, he still seemed tired. Grief can do that, she knew. 

Zack climbed onto Cloud’s back, straddling his waist, and started massaging is shoulders. Cloud let out a long moan. “You’re tense,” Zack commented, “and you’ve got a huge knot right there,” he rubbed a spot harder, and Cloud made a pain-tinged moan. “Gotta work it out,” Zack said, and kept going, though a bit more gently. Cloud’s face eased into peacefulness as the knot loosened, then Zack moved to massaging his back. 

Aerith got on the bed too with a smile, and started massaging his legs, then his feet. Then his ass, and heat starting tinging his moans - and Zack had to scoot up so she could do it properly. She took the opportunity to take his towel from him. And then back to his upper thighs, intentionally grazing sensitive areas, this time more for excitement’s sake. 

Cloud tried to lift his lower half in invitation to play more, but Zack had effectively pinned him. Zack got the hint though and sat up. Now with more leeway, Cloud spun around to his back. Zack smiled and sat on him again, massaging his chest now. 

Aerith grazed his exposed upper thighs, then the juncture of his leg, and Cloud’s breath quickened. She could see him hardening with her playfulness. She traced up the length of him and massaged and squeezed his growing dick. He groaned. 

Zack started kissing him and Aerith continued until he was fully hard, and pushing back into her hand. Then she grabbed the lube in Zack’s bag – and let her towel go on the way back. She came back to the bed, bent his leg and moved it to the size, and gently massaged his hole. He made more room with his legs immediately and it made her smile. 

She had had no idea she would love pleasuring them this way before she had tried it, but she absolutely did. It’s yet another way to make them go wild. What’s not to like about that? And there was something else too, that she was discovering slowly about herself. 

It started with her considering herself in their uniform, and led to her buying that strapon. And when Zack had treated it like it was part of her, already excited by watching the two of them together, something clicked. There was a part of her that didn’t always feel ‘feminine’. It’s not all the time, but it’s there sometimes. And that acknowledgement from him, even it was subconscious on his part, had been meaningful. 

Then, when she inside Cloud, she enjoyed it beyond mere stimulation. She liked the idea that part of her was pleasing him. She wasn’t quite ready to put words to it yet.

She took her time around the rim, as if it was just another muscle that needed massaging. And the muscles did seem to relax at her fingers. The massage continued inside of him, stretching him gently, and making him feel good. 

Zack asked, “What do you want, Cloud?” 

“I want you in me,” Cloud told him.

Zack kissed him one more time, then turned around and kissed Aerith. Roved her body with his hands. She did the same, tearing his towel from his body. Their hands were everywhere on each other, then she managed to grasp both Cloud and Zack’s dicks in her hand without looking and pumped them. 

They both gasped, and Zack put a hand on the other side and they pumped together. Then Zack let go and rubbed her clit rhythmically with her hand’s pace. Then he put his fingers inside her and pumped as he thumbed her clit. They breathed heavily into each other’s mouths. 

After some time, she scooted the both of them further up Cloud’s body so that she was lined up with Cloud, and she put her hands on Zack’s shoulders, and he put his hands on her waist, as she lowered herself onto Cloud’s straining cock. She ached for it, for them, and when his head brushed inside her it touched a deep need, and as she slid down she felt the need satisfied, only to be replaced by a deeper need still – to be filled over and over. 

They all moaned – even if it was vicarious on Zack’s part. She rocked against Cloud as she stared into Zack’s eyes. And this closeness brought that feeling of love for the both of them back to the forefront of her mind – not that it had gone very far. She kissed Zack’s chest, and sucked on his nipples, and Cloud moved back against her. Zack dipped his head next, and massaged her breast sucked on her nipples. Cloud moved his own hands to her waist.

At length Zack extricated himself with a smile and moved himself behind her, at the end of the bed. He pulled Cloud down by the waist, moving the both of them to the edge of the bed, making them both laugh. 

Aerith turned all the way around, to face Zack, not done with him yet, and gave him a wicked grin. She bent down, grabbing his waist, and lapped at his dick, making it twitch and Zack growl. She put her mouth over him and sucked at the head. 

Cloud thrust up into her and she got a thrill from being so intimate with both of them at once. She can see what gets Cloud so excited about it. The more Cloud moved inside her, the deeper she went on Zack, the more she sucked. Zack put his hands in her hair, and thrust shallowly into her mouth. She could feel herself getting wetter, and pushed to make him go deeper insider her. Cloud moaned her name. 

Aerith felt Zack twitch in her mouth. She let him go, and with a last deep kiss turned around again, and leaned forward more than she had been before as she and Cloud continued to move against each other. They stilled as Zack got right behind her, and pushed inside Cloud. 

Zack wrapped his arms around Aerith in a hug from behind as he thrust shallowly into Cloud and roved over her body. Aerith rocked slightly against Cloud as she leaned against Zack’s broad chest. 

Cloud was soon moaning in pleasure, and when she looked, she thought about how the faces he made when it came to men were different than when it was just the two of them. Zack too. She vaguely wondered what that felt like to them.

Aerith put her hands on his chest, and rolled her hips against him. Once she set a pace to match Zack’s, Cloud following, Zack reached between her legs, and rubbed her clit, making her moan. Cloud massaged her breasts, pinched her nipples gently between his fingers. 

She lay near-flush against Cloud and kissed him lovingly, arms around his neck as they moved. Heart hammering at the surge of emotions running through her. The love, and protectiveness, and devotion for Cloud and for Zack. 

Zack picked up the pace – harder, faster – making Cloud yell out in pleasure. He’s gotten better at letting go. It seemed at first – earlier on in their relationship – he wanted to “keep up”, pleasure for pleasure. But she could see how much he enjoyed it when she and Zack took control. Felt how his pre-come dribbled onto her fingers when Zack pushed himself roughly into Cloud’s mouth. Zack seemed to be picking up on it too, though none of them talked about it yet. Aerith personally wouldn’t mind trying more, and she wanted Cloud to feel good, so she would definitely offer it up in the future. But not today. 

At the very least, today, though, she would tug on his hair. And just focus on loving him…And suck behind his hear, biting just a little harder than she usually did. It earned her a yell of pleasure from him. She smiled. Then she kissed him, and bit his bottom lip, making him moan. It prompted Zack to move and faster and harder and the others followed suit. 

Seeing her effect on him, and feeling Cloud inside of her, and Zack still masterfully rubbing her clit, put her over the edge. She came hard. And Cloud thrust into her without missing a beat, and Zack kept his fingers moving. She pulsed over and over around Cloud, screaming out, and it went on and on into eternity, and it was amazing. When she was done, she collapsed heavily onto Cloud, making Cloud and Zack laugh. Cloud hugged her tight, and Zack lay partially on top of her to not squish her, and kissed her back while she lay there for a few minutes. 

Then she graciously got out of the way. By that, she rolled off Cloud bonelessly and lay on her back, tucking her leg as she rolled, while Zack bounded onto the bed and molded himself to Cloud, and kissed him. 

She watched as Zack rolled his hips into him, then thrust hard and fast, making Cloud cling to him. Zack drew Cloud’s arms over his head and pinned him at the wrists. And oh did Cloud like that. Aerith smiled.

Cloud closed his eyes, his eyebrows knit in a way that had to mean he was totally lost, and gave a helpless whine of pleasure. Zack fucked him harder in answer, grabbed his dick and pumped him in time, and stretched Cloud’s arms taught - and Cloud came, writhing. 

That was so incredibly hot. Zack kept him pinned and kept moving inside him until he was spent. Then Zack kissed him hard but Cloud was too blissed-out to kiss back properly. Zack cupped his cheek and stroke his jaw with his thumb until he came back to himself. 

Zack kissed him thoroughly, then stared moving in him again. 

Cloud roved his hands over Zack and Aerith sat up and did the same, building Zack up. She felt his muscles move under her hands as he thrust into Cloud, using much more strength than either could use with her. It’s a bit of good luck, them both being SOLDIERS – not having to hold back with each other even if they had to watch themselves around everyone else. 

When Aerith pinched Zack’s nipple he stilled, and came, burying himself in Cloud. 

~

They all went to sleep fitfully right after. The mood full of love and comfort. 

Sephiroth didn’t get to steal their sleep - or precious moments - from them.


	10. The Keystone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud discovers a newfound confidence, and the team searches for the Keystone. Meanwhile, Sephiroth tries a new tack.

The next morning, Cloud headed down to breakfast first, saying he wanted a chance to talk to Tifa – and he was looking really refreshed, and with a newfound confidence that was truly his own. Not the imitation of what he thought confidence should look like. Aerith marveled at it as he left the room and shared a look with Zack.

She took the opportunity to talk to Zack for a moment, placing a hand on his arm. When she had his attention, she said, “We focused a lot on Cloud last night, but what about you?” 

Zack gave her an appreciative smile. “I’m alright. I’ve had my share of good cries about it all, even if it was alone.”

“Alone?” she prompted.

“Well, when it was me and Cloud, but Cloud was deep in the haze.” His gaze turned a little distant and to the side as he thought about it. “I never did it so he could hear it though, in case he was aware, you know? I talked to him all the time as if he was. So, I mostly broke down when I was hunting by myself, or washing up or something, and Cloud was back at the camp. Each time, it was like it was enough to get by a little longer.” Zack smiled at little. “Then Cloud woke up sometimes, and things got better from there.”

“Well,” Aerith said, eyes, glistening, “my shoulder is here for you to cry on, if you need it.”

Seeing Aerith tear up made Zack do the same, and he sat down on the bed to gather himself. Aerith mirrored the action, facing him. She held her arms out invitingly to him.

Zack looked at her a moment, got overwhelmed by the acceptance in her eyes, and hugged her, letting his forehead rest on her shoulder. “Cloud still doesn’t remember the time in the lab,” he let out, now that he was talking. “I told him it’s better that way, and I meant it.”

Aerith rubbed his back in wordless acknowledgement, and he continued, “It turns out I wasn’t awake for much of that time. But, when I was…The isolation, being called a ‘specimen’ and being treated like a thing – one of little consequence at that – and they still wouldn’t release us. The anger, the pain from unknown treatments, the confusion, not knowing how long it’s been, the hopeless feeling that maybe we’ll never get out. But I did – I found a way. I was always watching whenever I was awake. And I got both us out of there.” 

Zack realized he started crying sometime in the middle of what he was saying. Aerith’s skin and dress strap were damp, her jacket not yet on. 

“It’s entirely inhumane what Hojo did to you and Cloud. What everyone in that lab was part of. I’m so, so sorry that this happened to you, Zack.”

Zack cried harder, and they both hugged each other tighter.

“I’m gunna tear Hojo’s heart out of his chest and shove it down his throat,” Aerith said.

Zack laughed through his tears. “I’d pay to see that.” 

“It’s a gift, because I love you,” she replied, and Zack laughed again. “But a gift to myself, too.” 

“He’s been terrible to you, too. Aerith, your mother…” Zack said, drying his tears and looking at her now. 

“Died because of him, yes. And we both lived at the Midgar lab for a long time. But, I’ve come to terms with it. My mom, who took me in, helped me. And, I know that my mother is ok – in the Lifestream.”

“Have you talked to her from the Lifestream?” Zack wondered.

“We haven’t really, no. I don’t think it’s possible. At least not from Midgar. But I’ve gotten the sense that she was there. I felt her, in the church sometimes.” Then she said, bringing the focus back to Zack, “It must have been hard to take care of Cloud like that.”

“It wasn’t easy. But I couldn’t imagine leaving him behind.”

“That’s what makes you such an amazing person. No doubt Cloud sees it, too. You’ve said that Cloud and I have big hearts. But yours is just as big.”

He smiled the most handsome smile at her. 

~

Cloud filled his plate with the assorted breakfast foods that were laid out for them at the Inn, and joined Tifa and Barrett, who were already eating. 

“Hey,” he said in greeting. 

“Hi Cloud,” Tifa replied. Barret’s mouth was full and he put a hand up in greeting. “How are you feeling?”

“Good. A lot better, thanks Tifa. It was…a lot to process.” 

“Yeah, no kidding,” she agreed.

“For you too, right?” Cloud prompted. Tifa looked surprised at his concern, and it stung Cloud. Was it really so surprising? They had started to get closer ever since they met again after all these years, but lately Cloud was too absorbed in falling for Aerith and Zack, and dealing with Sephiroth in his head, worrying about who he was, to be a friend. 

But all of those things seemed clearer now. He, Zack and Aerith were doing great, and even though yesterday was really difficult, he got through it with their help. And now, after he let himself be sad about it all, he felt centered and like something clicked. Ready to face what was next. And, he didn’t want to be so distant anymore. 

“It was hard going into my house, and seeing it all rebuilt but with another family lived there,” Tifa said.

“Yeah, me too,” Cloud said. Then, “I’m sorry I was harsh with you. Demanding answers like that instead of asking. I was…worried, and panicked.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Tifa replied, accepting. “A lot of it was strange, but what got you so spooked?”

“I…don’t remember that time the way you and Zack say it happened, and for a moment I believed Sephiroth when he said…that I was no one. I wondered if I never lived in Nibelheim.”

“You did,” she assured him. “You remember the promise you made me right?” He nodded. “I remember too. So, you see, you were there. 

“It’s still weird for me though, since I don’t remember so much myself.”

“It’s ok,” Tifa told him. “Maybe you will one day.”

“Am I very different now?” he wondered. 

“No, not when I know where to look,” she said, then smiled. “And lately, I don’t need to look as hard either,” she commented. “Maybe that has something to do with Aerith, and Zack.”

“Maybe,” he said warmth in voice from thinking of them. “And you, too.” 

“You’re a lot more…relaxed, then when I first met you,” Barret offered, “since we’re talking about it”. Tifa laughed.

“Not as big of an asshole, you mean?” Cloud asked. 

“Well, I was tryin’ ta be nice about it,” Barret said, smiling and laughing. 

“You’re…more relaxed too,” he replied, and Barret laughed harder. 

~

Before they left Nibelbeim, they looked over the mansion again. All of them this time, the whole team. Zack had insisted they not take any chances. And they made themselves a vampire friend! Not really, but that’s what it felt like when they were talking to a guy that was sleeping in a coffin. And Vincent hated Shinra as much as they did. He even knew Sephiroth and wanted to talk to him, so it was a good fit for him to join them. And a former Turk – could prove useful.

Then they passed through Mt. Nibel, and Cloud did bound around like a mountain goat. Tifa too. And on the other side, they found themselves in Rocket Town. 

Zack had been there not too long ago, making a deal with the Captain on mixing fuel for Avalanche. He had thought that Cid was fun guy, except for the way he seemed to abuse his assistant. That put a damper on the mood, but Zack was trying to make a deal and didn’t let on. Then, as he learned more about him this time around, he found out things were complicated between the two. Still hit Zack wrong, but hey, he was part of the team now, and it’s not like she came with them. 

So, they got themselves a plane and a new friend. And shit, that getaway was exciting! Zack was smiling for an hour afterward. 

But on a more serious note, they knew where to go now. The Temple of the Ancients. And they knew –kinda – where is was-ish. They also found out that they needed a key before they could enter – a Keystone. And that some rich dude had it. So, they had some poking around to do. 

They knew some rich guys. Quite a few in Midar. Most notably, anyone on the Shinra Board. But they did say “guy” so it’s not Scarlet. Maybe there are some rich retirees living in Costa del Sol, but why would they care about something for the Temple of the Ancients? Zack supposed it was possible someone was collecting the stone for the sake of collecting something with history, but it was probably someone with skin in the game like Rufus. They also know about Dio, the owner of the Gold Saucer. He has a museum there. Why did Sephiroth ask him about the Black Materia? Blind try, or was he a collector? 

They decided to backtrack, poking around towns as they passed them. And if they wound up back in Midar, so be it. At least travelling was faster in the Tiny Bronco. No chance of motorcycle gang attacks that way either. 

They met a Wutainese girl in the forest around Gongaga. The first time they encountered her she stole from them. Cloud and some of the others were pissed about it, but the guilt over what happened in Wutai weighed heavily on Zack and he asked them to let it go. 

Cloud picked up on it and pulled him aside. “You were in Wutai, right? During the war?”

“Yeah,” Zack replied heavily. “We shouldn’t have been there.”

“No,” Cloud agreed. “But I’m sure you thought you were protecting everyone else from Wutai by being there.”

“I killed a lot of people, Cloud,” Zack said with a frown. 

“So did I,” Cloud countered, and it made Zack wince. “I killed a lot of Shinra troops. Maybe people I knew once.” Cloud thought for a moment. “I was recognized by someone, in Shinra tower. He thought I was off on missions this whole time. Said someone would be happy to see me, but I didn’t even recognize the name. I ditched and moved on when he ran off to get the guy. Could I have still done it if I knew everyone’s names? If they were my friends once?” Cloud wondered at the last. 

Zack hugged him. There was time for talk like this, but not in the field. “Later,” Zack promised. “We’ll pick this up again later.” 

Cloud nodded as Zack pulled back, keeping his hands on his shoulders, then said, thinking, “Kunsel, I think he said his name was.”

“What? Kunsel?!” Zack exclaimed.

It startled Cloud. “So you know him?”

“He’s only one of the best guys you’ll even meet! Shit.” He spun away and looked down, hands on his hips, thinking. There’s been no safe way to contact him since he and Cloud ran. Was there a way now? Still no, he though. Not unless Kunsel got one of those off-the-grid phones too. 

So he’s still there, at Shinra. Zack was excited about knowing he was ok, but it sucked that there was nothing he could do to talk to him. Maybe they would run into each other at some point. There’s been a ton of Shinra activity. If so, would they be meeting as enemies? It was a sobering thought. 

“Maybe we can find a way to talk to him,” Cloud offered, seeing the conflicting emotions running through Zack. 

Zack looked at him. “Right, I can hope.” Then he realized the absurdity of what he said before, ‘One of the best guy’s you’ll even meet,’ and laughed. The guy was Cloud’s commanding officer! And it’s not like they had the chance the see each other on the same level in order to become friends. He wondered how they would get along now if they had the chance.

“Alright,” Cid called to them, hand cupped to his mouth, “hug break’s over,” making Aerith and Tifa giggle as they looked at each other. 

Zack laughed and walked toward the group. “Aw, you’re just grumpy ‘cause you don’t get hugs,” he countered, putting an arm around a smiling Aerith in defiance of his call for an end to hugs. 

“Not from you, buddy,” Cid said, a little amused. 

They ran into the girl again later that day, and Cloud was so smooth that she decided to join them. She was wary of Zack, and he didn’t blame her. She had a lot of anger. But Cloud hadn’t been involved in Wutai so it made the pitch much easier coming from him. 

They made it to Gongaga before nightfall and stayed the night, and Zack was glad for another opportunity to see his parents. And they were happy to see him too. He knew they didn’t understand his relationship with Cloud and Aerith but - they were trying, which he appreciated so much. The more skeptical side of him wondered if a part of them just didn’t want do drive him away and not see him again for another ten years. But in the end, the reason didn’t matter to Zack. He was just happy to be home. They spent the time catching up, and they asked Aerith and Cloud a lot of questions about themselves. 

After dinner, he and Cloud made time for that talk. They sat with their legs crossed in the grass, a little ways from the house. The light from the house made it easier them to see each other. This stuff has been eating away at the both of them, but sharing it with each other made them both a little lighter. 

Can’t live by hindsight, right? 

But there was something else on Zack’s mind, too. “Cloud, what Sephiroth said. Do I hold you back?”

“What?” Cloud asked surprised. 

“He’s just trying to create a wedge between us all, like Aerith said, but, if you ever think I’m holding you back - taking the reins from you in this thing we’re doing…tell me to back off.” 

Cloud was a little befuddled, then he examined his expression - looked out into the distance, and said, “When you joined us, I had wondered if you were gunna take over leading us. A part of me was happy at the idea of it, because I don’t know what I’m doing. Or at least, I didn’t. But, that’s not what happed at all. You gave me advice - you know much more than me in a lot of things - but you never tried to make a decision for me. You even told me I should keep your buster sword. And, in the end I never asked you to take the lead. I see now, why it has to be me. So, no Zack, you’ve never done that. And don’t worry, I’ll tell you to fuck off if I need to.” 

Zack laughed, and said, “Well, that’s all I can ask for. I know I can be a bit much, but that’s never bothered you, huh?”

“Well, it’s been annoying sometimes,” Cloud teased. “Like when you woke up before the rest of us and tried to get us moving for the day. Uggg.”

Zack laughed. “I said, “I thought you were a SOLDIER”, and you rolled over and looked at me all pissed and went, “I’m retired.” Then you and Aerith went back to sleep. Learned my lesson!”

~

They passed Aerith and Tifa talking on the way to the Inn to settle in for the night, and when they had nearly arrived Yuffie ran up to Zack, and blurted out, “This is your hometown right?”

“Yeah.”

“I saw the reactor…or what’s left of it,” she said and looked away. “And…I realized that Shinra really did hurt you too. And, you know better now. So, I’m not saying we should be best friends or anything, but you don’t have to watch your back with me either. 

Zack looked moved. “Thank you, for not hating me too much.”

Yuffie nodded to that and then bounded away. 

They finished their walk to the Inn and Aerith joined them not long after.

It seems the heavy talk wasn’t quite finished though. It wasn’t long before Cloud took on a pained expression. 

Aerith looked at him, curious and sad.

“Here I was, being all content and happy. Now, he’s calling to me,” Cloud tells them uncomfortably. “It’s a little stronger than normal.”

“Well, he doesn’t need to remind us,” Aerith stated, “we’re doing all we can already, which is what he already wants.”

Cloud nodded. “And a part of me wants to follow,” he admitted. “It leaves me feeling restless. Like I should walk – anywhere – until I find him.”

There was a silence in the room. Then, “What if we call to you?” Zack wondered out loud, softly. 

“What?” Cloud asked wide eyed. 

“What if me and Aerith demanded your full attention? And tonight, you belong to us,” he finished with a wolfish grin. He looked to Aerith next, and they shared the expression. 

Cloud felt a thrill run through him. He didn’t know what to say. Would that work? It sounded appealing, now that he said it, to be allowed to give in in some way. A way that he chose for himself. With them. “Mmm, I want you to,” he started, though he has some doubts. “But…the way that I want to, is that even me? Or is it because of what was done to me? Is it the fact that I’m being called that makes me want to – give in to you so much?” Cloud was feeling a little embarrassed saying it out loud. 

“In the end, it doesn’t matter. You’re you, regardless of how you got there. We want you to be happy. And, if this can also help you, let us help you,” Aerith said, somehow concerned and turned on at the same time. 

Cloud thought about it. It’s best not to overthink it – he told himself. In fact, he usually is quite good at staying in the moment and following his intuition. But, he also has put a great deal of effort into staying in control of his destiny, and in shaping how others see him – exuding confidence that wasn’t always there. But, also, he realized ever since returning to Nibelheim that he didn’t have to do that anymore. Real confidence is in being yourself. He agreed. 

They undressed Cloud together. Aerith kissed him, then removed his shirt. And Zack got close behind him and pulled his pants and underwear down. Then Aerith pushed him back and took them off the rest of the way while Zack kissed him. 

And then they undressed each other. Cloud watched as they stood on their knees, kissing and taking off item after item. 

Then they pulled Cloud gently up again, and positioned him to sit in the middle of the bed. 

Zack moved behind him, and Aerith pushed Cloud firmly into Zack’s chest with more force than he was used to coming from her, sending another thrill through him. She threw herself on top of him and gripped his hair as she kissed him, tugging a bit. Zack pulled Cloud’s arms up and over Zack’s shoulders, pinning him to his body. “Ok, definitely yes,” Cloud confirmed, thoroughly aroused now. 

Aerith smiled and attacked his nipple with her mouth, while Zack pushed up into Cloud so that he could feel his cock grazing the cleft of his ass. “Ahh,” Cloud gasped out. 

Aerith slunk up and straddled Cloud on her knees, grasped his hand and moved it to her entrance. He pressed his fingers inside and played with her clit the way that she loved. She closed her eyes and moved against his fingers - he could feel her getting wet, and could see the want building in her. Zack was pushing against him, over and over, all the while, making it difficult for him to concentrate but he managed it. A few moments later she moved his hand away, came up flush against him, and sunk onto his dick. She ground against him, taking her pleasure from him, while she took the back of his head and guided him to her breast as she moved and he sucked on her nipple. Zack gave him a little slack in the hold on his arms so he could learn forward enough. 

He felt Zack push more insistently against his hole, making him want it so much – wanting him to go deep inside him. When Aerith moved his head up again and kissed him, Zack pulled his arms back to how they had been before. “Keep your arms where they are”, Zack told him with a thick voice and roved his hands over Cloud, then wrapped an arm around his waist, and pressed a slick finger into him, and then at length another, all while Aerith rode him. 

Then Zack’s cock pressed firmly against his rim, and pushed teasingly, again and again. “Zack,” he called out in frustrated arousal. Zack’s breath was harsh near his ear. Then, suddenly, Zack pushed into him solidly. Cloud groaned deep in pleasure at the roughness. Zack thrust up into him, reaching a demanding pace quickly, and Aerith stopped a moment to take stock of it all – and then matched it, adding some more roughness of her own that was intensely sexy. She pulled his head back and kissed him deep, then sank deep on him and snapped her hips again and again. 

Aerith pulled Cloud off of Zack – with a look that asked for Zack’s indulgence – and got him beneath her, and rode him. She pulled his hands over his head and kissed him while she pinned him, riding him all the while. She may not be as strong as Cloud, but like hell he was gunna test her grip. Zack came over then and pinned his arms more solidly. Cloud tested it then, and when there was no give whatsoever another moan escaped his throat. 

She rode him faster, leaning forward, causing his arms to pull more against Zack’s hold, and Cloud was gasping. He was starting to worry he would come too soon.

But then Aerith was grabbing his wrist herself – prompting Zack to let go – and directing his hand to her mound. He understood, and played firmly with her clit and she moved on him. He was so deep in her. “Faster,” she told him, and he did, until she was coming a moment later – face flushed and scrunched tight in pleasure. When she couldn’t move any more, Cloud matched the pace she had made until she was finished. 

When Aerith slumped to the side Zack pulled him up and kissed him roughly. Brought him over to the wall by the bicep and then hoisted him up by the legs and against the wall with force. “Fuck,” Cloud gasped with excitement. Zack smiled, and was slamming into him a moment later, and pinning him hard against the wall with his forearm in way that turned on Cloud more than he could have imagined it would, making him hold on and whine in pleasure. 

His noises were encouraging Zack to go harder still, then faster, until Cloud couldn’t see or think, or do anything but moan loudly and hold onto him tighter. 

Cloud felt Aerith’s hand grasp around him, pumping his dick firmly, giving an occasional extra squeeze to the head. She had put her hand between Cloud and Zack’s bodies, and Zack had made some room for her.

The intensity of his building orgasm seemed impossibly big, so large it made him a little afraid to see it through. But he didn’t stay to stop. Instead he said, “Don’t stop.”

And Aerith’s sultry moan, and the resulting rumbling groan in Zack’s chest combined, may have been the sexiest thing he’s ever heard. 

His orgasm peaked, so intense it was overwhelming. They didn’t stop as he came in thick spurts, so lost in the feeling he thought he might never come out of it. 

He stayed there dazed as Zack came not long after, buried so deep in him. He felt his cock pulse with his release, and his forehead resting on his shoulder as he groaned, and breathed harsh. “Fuck,” Zack said. 

They stumbled their way over the bed again, Aerith already laying there, looking at them with satisfaction. Cloud lay next to her, and lay his head on her still-bare chest. She was so comfortable. She laughed at his exhaustion. “So then you liked it?” she asked knowingly. 

Cloud groaned in answer, making the other two laugh. 

“We’ll have to do that again,” Zack said, sidling up to them and wrapping an arm around Cloud. “When the mood strikes.” 

Cloud hummed his agreement, and fell asleep quickly. He could feel Aerith shake with her continued laughter. 

~

So, they found the Keystone. 

Then it got stolen. Fucking Shinra. 

Now they had a known spy with them as well. 

So, they did what they always do. 

Keep moving.

~ 

They stayed the night on the Chocobo Farm as they searched the nearby islands for the Temple. Cloud liked the quiet of the place. He helped the farmer’s son take care of the Chocobos in the morning - mostly feeding and grooming.

When he left the barn to meet up with the others, though…

Sephiroth was standing in front of Cloud and they were now in the middle of the living area of a large suite with the unmistakable motif of Shinra Tower. Perhaps his quarters from back when he had them – but Cloud’s never been inside them himself. He had a curiously self-possessed expression on his face. Something Cloud hasn’t seen in a long time…. Cloud had been prepared to shut him down before he could get a word in, but this made him pause.

“Hello, Cloud,” he said with casual confidence. The air of General about him. He sat down at a small table and offered the other seat to Cloud with a wave of his hand. He didn’t take it. 

“I don’t get it,” Cloud said.

He smiled sardonically. “Allow me to explain. In an attempt to persuade you to my side, Mother and I have isolated the part of myself that you respect the most, while also maintaining the understanding needed to be persuasive.”

“But the real you wouldn’t have their point of view,” Cloud pointed out.

“Perhaps not,” he said, considering. “That should probably be a concerning thought, but I find I’m incapable of being concerned about it.” 

“She’s manipulating you, Sephiroth. It’s your chance to break free!”

“That’s doubtful, even if I wanted to, since she can make me what I am once again without trouble.” He smiled. “But it seems you’re trying to convince me instead of the other way around. I admire that. If things had been different, maybe we would have gotten along, you and I.” 

“That would have been great,” Cloud admitted with a frown. 

“Now, down to business,” he said as he smiled small at Cloud’s words. He set his face into something more serious, as he said, “When I learned the nature of my birth five years ago, I was at a loss. Though I was wrong about one important aspect. I had thought that Shinra made me an Ancient, and that Mother was one as well. And I helped her to her freedom. I judged all people that took part in such works as being unworthy of life.”

“Including the townspeople?” Cloud asked, engaging despite himself. 

“Yes, them too, because their hands were not clean either. You were still young and did not understand their complicity is this. And not just Nibelheim. Every town that welcomed Shinra and their lies. Willing believed their thinly-veiled false promises because it was convenient. They were weak minded.”

“They wanted a better life.”

“At the cost of critical thought. I find it abhorrent.” 

“Then teach them, don’t condemn them. You had so many advantages, you don’t know what it’s like to grow up with nothing.”

“I do plan to teach them,” Sephiroth said cryptically. Then his eyebrows rose in genuine surprise and then settled again. “Advantages. You mean strength, the ability to lead, and education. Could everyone not obtain some measure of those if they tried?”

“No. Not when you’re thinking about the next meal, and guessing how bad the winter might be.”

“And what about you? You came from little, and yet you’ve obtained so much.”

“Fuck you. I gained strength by either luck or a curse. It’s how it is for most people than wind up winning out. But I’ll use it for them, since they don’t have the advantages themselves.” Cloud was surprised at himself even as he talked. He was speaking the truth as he knew it, but he’s never put it into words before. To call himself naturally mediocre, saying he was who he was by chance - It didn’t feel like he was putting himself down this time. It actually made him feel stronger. 

“You fail to see your own greatness,” Sephiroth stated. “You were always trying to be more than you are, and you’ve succeeded.”

“You’ll fail to see anything I say so long as you’re tied to Jenova,” Cloud replied. “Fight her.”

Sephiroth’s face twitched in confusion for a moment, then he stood. “This is over. I must try something else,” he said politely – distantly. 

“No you don’t. Stay out of my head.”

Sephiroth just looked back at him – and then he was gone.


	11. Temple of the Ancients

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, get ready - the story will be going faster and faster from here!

They found it, after all that searching. The Temple of the Ancients. 

As soon as Aerith steps off the plane, she hears the voice of the planet. Clearer than she ever has before. It was humbling, and powerful. As she approached the temple, she had to stop where she was and went to her knees - and listened with all her might. It spoke of its suffering, and it pleaded with her to do as she must. For all of them to preserve fate. 

...For her to pass on to the Lifestream. She could not agree. Would not. But she felt the planet’s dismay at her answer - and so she vowed once again to save it. 

When she sat up again, Cloud was sitting patiently beside her. He had that serene look again. 

“We have to go inside,” she told him. 

He nodded, solemnly. “Let’s go.”

They stood, and Zack joined them from his place standing a short distance away. They walked inside and Aerith was filled with such energy from the place. 

Cloud ran forward, and when she looked to the altar he was running toward, she saw Tseng slumped on the ground, leaning against it. 

“Tseng,” Zack said with animosity, and strode faster toward him. 

Cloud was kneeling now, and Tseng spoke to him, “He lied, he’s not an Ancient.”

“No,” Cloud confirmed. 

Aerith had complicated feelings when it came to Tseng. He was both Shinra’s hand of oppression and someone that seemed to revere the Ancients…and her by extension. And he’s been a part of her life for so long that he was one of the few in this world that really knew her. In the end, she felt no sympathy for him. He’s chosen to do so many terrible things. She stood a distance from him and didn’t speak to him. Held a set expression.

“So cold,” Tseng commented when she looked at him. Aerith didn’t budge. 

He gave Cloud the Keystone. 

They all shared solemn expressions at knowing Sephiroth was inside – the manner of Tseng’s wound a signature of his sword Masamune. They had to get to the Black Materia first, and Aerith was their advantage in navigating the Temple. They could do this. 

They came across a sacred pool, and near it, the voice of the planet was so clear it brought tears to Aerith’s eyes. She knelt next to it, and Cloud and Zack stood a few paces away, Zack’s hand on Cloud’s shoulder. 

It warned her Sephiroth was already in the inner sanctum, showed her how he attacked the Turks from within it. “Hurry,” it said,” even as it showed her a vision as she stood in haste. A vision of Meteor hurtling down from the sky, and of her own death by Sephiroth’s sword, and its plea to her, once again, “Please, do what needs to be done, please.” She felt the planet’s anguish. 

She dropped to her knees again from the power of it. But she didn’t let herself dwell on it now. She stood up and kept moving. “We have to keep going,” she told Cloud and Zack passionately. “He’s already there.”

~

They entered the inner sanctum. The whole room shined golden. It was empty. Cloud called out to him, “Come out, Sephiroth!”

They heard him laugh in amusement. “You’re being ridiculous. I’m always with you,” Sephiroth replied as he appeared to them. Was that true? “What do you think?” Sephiroth asked Cloud, indicating the mural on the walls. It depicted Meterorfall. Sephiroth looked like he was showing off a special project that he was proud of to a friend.

“Meteor?” Cloud asked, surprised, studying it. 

Sephiroth explained with great flourish how the Black Materia would call Meteor, injuring the planet.

“Injure the planet. Why do you want to do that?” Aerith asked him. That was what she still didn’t know. Why all this? 

Sephiroth took great pleasure in explaining how taking the resulting surge in the plant’s power would make him as powerful as a god. To rule over all. And to become one with Jenova. Aerith thought that just as Cloud was drawn to Sephiroth, Sephiroth was similarly drawn to Jenova. Probably even more strongly. Impossible to resist.

“You and I will become one as well,” he told Cloud with certainty. Cloud looked more affected than he wanted to be by the assertion, and both Aerith and Zack instinctively took on defensive postures. With that, Sephiroth disappeared, and they were left to inspect the room once again. 

Suddenly, Cloud laughed hysterically, hand against the mural of Meteor. It was chilling. 

“Cloud?” Zack asked, concerned.

“He’s really gunna do it. It’s really true.” He laughed again. He was getting unhinged. They needed to get the Black Materia and get out of there. They could reflect on everything later.

“Let’s just get the Black Materia,” Aerith said. “Think about the rest later.”

Cloud slowly got a hold on himself, took a deep breath, and nodded. 

They inspected the altar, and agreed that it was safer from Sephiroth if they did take the Black Materia for themselves. 

~

Now, out in the open - Cloud, Black Materia in hand, reached out with and eager look on his face and gave it to Sephiroth. 

Sephiroth smiled back at him with a twisted approximation of affection as he took it. “You’ve done so well, Cloud,” he praised. And he disappeared one again.

Cloud fell to his knees, looked out into nothing, sheer torment on his face. “What have a done?”

Aerith and Zack came over to him, sat on either side of him. “It’s alright,” Aerith assured him, “you couldn’t help it.” She put a hand on his upper arm.

“No, it’s not!” he yelled, throwing her arm off him by throwing his own toward her in a wild motion. It jarred Aerith badly, straining her own arm in the process. “Ow!” she yelled, pained and surprised. 

“Cloud, keep it together!” Zack barked at him. Worried by the way he hurt Aerith, even if it was unintentional. 

Cloud looked stung by his tone, and then intensely guilty for having hurt Aerith. For forgetting himself like that. 

“Are you ok, Aerith?” Zack asked. 

“Yeah,” she said, more worried for Cloud at this point than herself. 

“I’m sorry,” Cloud said, panicked. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. And I couldn’t stop him. I couldn’t stop him!” he screamed, burying his head in his hands. 

Zack took a hold of his arm this time, and cautiously at that. “Hey,” he said more kindly, abandoning the sternness now, “It’s over now. Let it go.” 

“No, he could do it again!”

“We’ll deal with that when it comes, Cloud. For now, all you need to do is walk away.”

Cloud breathed quickly and deeply, in and out. Zack squeezed his hand more firmly on his arm. 

“We’re here, Cloud,” Aerith told him. “And he’s not here anymore. He already got what he wanted. But it’s ok, we’ll figure out what to do next.”

“He has the Black Materia. I gave it to him. It’s over.”

“It’s not, I promise,” Aerith asserted, made sure to look him in the eye. “And I should know, right?”

That seemed to get through to him, and he finally started to calm. They stayed that way for a few minutes, before Aerith suggested, “Let’s head back to the plane.”

Zack and Cloud nodded, and Zack made to head back. Aerith stayed still, and waited for Cloud to start moving. 

A surprisingly dark look suddenly overtook Cloud’s face and before Aerith could react he threw his arm out, grabbed her around the neck, and squeezed. Aerith choked. Panic flooded her. Just a moment ago he was so calm. 

Cloud said to her in a way that was nothing like Cloud, full of cold menace, “I won’t kill you, Cetra. That will not work out well. I know. But, what if you simply - never woke up?” Her hands flew to his grip on her neck when he started talking and she tried to pry his fingers away without so much as moving one of his fingers. 

Suddenly Zack was behind him, confused and outraged at what he was seeing, and punched him hard across the back of the head. Cloud turned around to face him with hatred in his expression. Zack was shocked at the look on his face. “You don’t belong here,” he sneered at Zack, let Aerith go, and threw a punch at Zack. Zack blocked it. They traded blows. Cloud got him square in the nose with a right hook. Zack roared, pained and enraged, and then Zack punched him hard in the gut, knocking the wind out of him, taking him down to his knees. 

Aerith was taking rapid breathes of air as they fought. Zack landed another blow to the head as Aerith gathered her magic, and cast a powerful sleep spell - and all at once Cloud was out, face down on the ground. 

Zack looked at her wildly. His nose was broken and bloody. She burst out crying, put her face in her hands. For the fear she had felt for he life, and Zack’s injury and betrayed expression, and for Cloud – who couldn’t help what he had done. 

Zack came over to her slowly, kneeled down, and hugged her tight. 

~

Aerith sat on the white swinging bench behind Zack’s parents’ house, idly pushing it by moving her leg, sipping the tea his mom had given her before heading back inside. Her face was still puffy from crying but her tears have dried now. She washed Zack’s blood from her neck and face when she arrived. 

Cloud’s breakdown and tortured expression weighed heavily in her mind. And that had happened before he assaulted them both. She worried for how he would react when he woke up.

She knew that Cloud would give the Black Materia to Sephiroth, but her vision was of a cold place. This was different. Maybe the “where” doesn’t matter. What does matter is that he has the Black Materia now. And he will absolutely cast Meteor with it. And she knew that the only way to save the planet now was the use the White Materia, which she kept pinned in her hair, to gather the power of the Lifestream to stop it. 

Should she go alone? Maybe bring Zack? Spare Cloud the anguish of being controlled in that way again? Of even the specter of it happening hanging over him? Then she would join them again, and they can decide what to do from there. Maybe go after the Black Materia anyway, with the safety-net of Holy working on their side. Easy peasy, right? 

She would have to go the Cetra Ruins. And she thought she felt the pull of it beyond the forest when they visited Bone Village all the way up North. 

Would they resent her for going alone? Then the memory, the vision, stood stark in her mind. In it, she prayed with the White Materia in a sacred place. And she was killed. By Sephiroth. It stopped her thoughts cold for a long time.

Is this why she died?

She got goosebumps all over her body. Her attempt to spare Cloud pain may become a grave error. A mistake, like when she tried to warn Cloud off of loving her. She laughed bitterly. And it was an error that the planet wants her to make, but that she has the choice not to. 

Zack joined her a moment later, his face and neck pink from washing the blood away, his shirt wet at the collar from scrubbing. She had healed his nose before leaving the Temple cite, though it was still very tender – and he had healed her neck. “He’s still out cold, but he’ll be ok,” Zack told her as he sat. “SOLDIERs are strong, remember that.” 

“Right,” she said with a grim smile. 

“What’s wrong,” Zack asked, sensing a deeper worry than about Cloud’s condition alone.

Aerith hesitated a moment. Then, anguished, overwhelmed and exhausted - spilled her guts to him. “I know what I have to do. But if I do it the way the planet wants…I’ll die.”

Zack gasped. “Then don’t!” He said with force.

“I know. But I understand now how it could happen. Leaving alone, to cast Holy, without Cloud, to spare him.”

“Alone,” Zack said, pained. 

“And Cloud would blame himself for what happened. He looked so sad, Zack…he didn’t have either of us.” Aerith’s tears started again. “And…I don’t want to go to the Lifestream yet…” she trailed off, distraught. “I don’t want to leave either of you.” It was hard enough to think about it early in their journey. But now, squarely faced with her own mortality, it hit her hard.

Zack hugged her tightly as she sobbed. He was crying too, now. “How could the planet expect you to go, knowing that it would kill you? Did they completely forget what it’s like to be human?”

“Maybe they have. And some never were – they were Cetra. Maybe they’re treating me like a Cetra. As someone that understands that the future of the planet is more important than a single life. And that thinking…is not wrong.”

“Promise me you won’t go alone. Please? And if you find you absolutely have to, then take me with you. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself either, if something happened to you.” That was a sobering thought. Even if Zack and Cloud had each other, they would both blame themselves and mourn her leaving them. 

“I promise, Zack. I won’t go alone.” She looked him in the eye and they met in a kiss. 

Then she added, warned really, cradling his head in her hand, “But, without following fate, anything can happen.”

~

Cloud woke up with a massive headache. He sat up as he put a hand to his throbbing head, looked groggily around the room, and recognized Aerith and Zack sitting on two chairs near the bed. “Where am I?” he asked them.

“My parent’s house,” Zack said. “How’s the head?” he asked sympathetically. 

“It hurts.”

“I hit you pretty hard.”

“You hit me?” But then he remembered. “Oh, right.” Then he became horrified and nauseated. “I punched you,” he said to Zack. “And, I choked you,” he told Aerith. “I’m so, so, sorry. How are you?”

“We’re both ok,” Aerith assured him. “And we don’t blame you. I promise.” Cloud looked at Aerith’s neck carefully, and did seem to see that nothing was wrong with it now – then to Zack’s nose. 

She had thought Cloud might break down again. Instead, he looked lost, and immensely sad. It broke her heart to see it. 

She thought that Cloud was at his best when he was looking toward the future. Focusing on what’s next. “I know what we have to do,” she told him. “Let’s all talk as a team.”

“You do?” he asked, surprised.

She winked at him cutely. But then her expression turned serious. “But first. I want the two of you to know, that things will be more dangerous from now on. And if something happens to me, please, do not blame yourselves. Though I fear your heroic natures won’t allow you that.” She smiled sadly. 

“Do you know something?” Cloud asked. Shit, she was too direct. He caught on. Well, Cloud has been so honest with his feelings. Didn’t he deserve honesty from her? 

Aerith told Cloud what she told Zack. 

“But he doesn’t want you to die,” Cloud told her. “He wants you out of the way.” Aerith nodded, remembering what Cloud had said when Sephiroth was influencing him.

“Stop protecting me,” Cloud told her, not unkindly. “I know I’ve been freaking out. And I get that you don’t want to give me more than I can handle. But, don’t put too much on yourself either. Maybe everyone should know, so that we can share the burden.”

Aerith’s eyes went wide. When did Cloud get so wise? She looked at him fondly. “Ok. You’re right Cloud.” 

“And don’t forget, Cloud’s the most stubborn guy I know. He can take the truth.” Zack said with his own fondness. Aerith could see how Zack’s words made Cloud look more resolved, stronger. 

~ 

The team decided to go to the Cetra Ruins – together. All of them. 

Before they did, Aerith needed Cloud to know that she still trusts him. She talked to Zack and he felt the same. They would have to take precautions in the Ruins, in case Cloud lost control, but she didn’t want Cloud to feel isolated because of that. 

So, when they were settled in for the night at Bone Village, Aerith sat on Cloud’s lap and hugged him tight. He returned it right away, and she could feel the tension leaving him some as they embraced. 

Zack sat on his other side then, and hugged him with a smile around the waist from behind. Cloud’s tension eased up even more, and he placed his hand over Zack’s and smiled a little. 

After what must have been a long time, Cloud asked, “Should I get a separate room? I might hurt you both.”

“No,” Zack said, “he needs to be nearby for that to happen, right?”

“I think so, but what if that’s not true?” Cloud answered.

“Then he could have done something already, before we met at the Temple,” Aerith said. “Also, we want you to know how much we love you.”

“Cloud smiled small at her, pleased to hear her say it, then said a little sadly, “And it’s because I love the both of you that I don’t want to risk hurting you.”

“Thank you - for caring so much. She put her hand to his face and brushed her thumb over the freckles on his cheek, then kissed where she had rubbed. “Let me show you my love - this way,” Aerith said, and kissed him tenderly on the lips. Cloud kissed back and put his hands gently at her waist. 

Zack hugged him tighter, rubbed a hand in his hair affectionately. Cloud turned around and Aerith scooted herself off of his lap. 

Zack and Cloud looked at each other, faces close. “I love you, Cloud,” Zack said, put a hand on each of Cloud’s biceps. “I’m staying right here next to you, whatever happens.”

Cloud gave him a grateful expression. “Zack, I love you, too,” Cloud said.

Zack pulled him slowly in and kissed him, and Cloud put his arms over Zack’s shoulders. Their kiss heated up, and Aerith hugged Cloud’s back and stroked his sides. Down his legs. Along his arms. Zack tilted Cloud back to lean into Aerith. Positioned Cloud’s body so that Zack could fit more comfortably against him. 

Cloud pulled away slightly, a little out of breath. “If that’s the case, if you’re staying with me, then…”

“What do you need?” Zack prompted. 

“I think I’ll be better - if I’m in control for a while.” He’s certainly enjoyed giving up control with them in the past, but the thought of it at that moment made him feel too vulnerable. He thought, in light of just having been quite literally controlled by his enemy, he wanted an affirmation that he could actually maintain control in some way. 

Zack smiled, “I’m all for that, Hotness.” And just like that the mood changed. 

Cloud was surprised at how quickly that was decided. He smiled and guided him up the bed so that Zack was lying down. Cloud climbed on top of him, straddled him and kissed him, slow and deliberate. He took off Zack’s shirt, then his own. 

Then he turned to Aerith questioningly.

“I’m in, too,” she said, intrigued and excited. 

Cloud went to her and kissed her demandingly, put his hands in her hair. Then he leaned her down and ground against her, held her ass and used his hand to help guide the tempo for both of them, making her mewl her excitement. 

They all stripped down and then Cloud was licking Aerith’s sex, making her wet and wanting. Made her need for him build, and then he came up and slid inside her. He started slow, and built a strong pace, making her gap. 

Then he asked her to turn around and she gave him a fun wicked smile before getting on her hands and knees. He pushed inside her again, held onto her hips, and kept the pace they had before. She was moaning louder now, and said, “Why haven’t we done this positon before?”

Cloud laughed, delighted she was having a good time and thrust into her hard once, making her yell out.

“Come here, Zack,” she invited and when he got in front of her, he bent and kissed her. “Let me make you feel good,” she told him, reaching for his dick. She stroked it and Zack moaned and got up onto his knees to make it easier. Then she grabbed his butt and brought him closer – mouthed and licked his dick. Then she put it in her mouth, so slowly. 

Cloud has loved being in between the two of them, but seeing Aerith do the same was also extremely hot. And also, he had taken note the last time she was between them of the unselfconscious way about her. It helped his own confidence in doing the same later. 

Zack closed his eyes for a few long moments in enjoyment, then looked at how Cloud was pleasing her, thrusting into her with his hands on her hips, making her moan around Zack. 

She seemed to be getting close, and she put a hand between her legs and started playing with her clit, making her moan even more. 

“Allow me, gorgeous,” Zack said.” He pulled away and got close to her on one side. He put his hand between legs and massaged her clit rhythmically - the way she had done to herself. 

She cried out and lowered her head so that it was on the pillow. The tension in her built, until she yelled out in her orgasm. Cloud felt it around him. Loved that feeling. Nearly came himself. 

Aerith panted, and Cloud pulled out. She fell to the mattress in a blissful heap. 

Cloud kissed her cheek, and then turned to Zack and slowly pushed him back so that he was on top of Zack again. He was grinding against him, Aerith’s wetness between them, pulling his leg around his waist and massaging his ass. 

Cloud wasn’t used to taking charge so much with either of them, but now that they had a momentum going, he found the comfort in it he was looking for. Found he liked it just fine. Zack gasped into his mouth, wiggled his hip enticingly. He wasn’t used to seeing Zack going with things like this either. He was usually the one pushing things forward - but he seemed to be enjoying it. 

Cloud broke away from kissing Zack and asked Aerith, who was watching now with interest, to prepare him. She got another wicked glint in her eye. 

Zack looked at him a moment, then said, “Do you want to – top me?”

And the question surprised Cloud. He hadn’t thought of that. He was thinking he would ride Zack. But, now that he thought about it…it was a complete unknown to Cloud, and the idea excited him. He answered him, intentionally over-the-top, hoping for a laugh, “Gimme that sweet ass,” Cloud said, with heat mixed in as well. He wasn’t disappointed. Zack laughed, amused and excited. “Have you ever done it before?” Cloud asked, curious, smiling at making Zack laugh. 

He knew Zack had been quite the playboy back in the day, before he met Aerith, so it was possible... “Yeah, sure. It’s been a while though. I mean, I also finger myself when I feel like it. And you’ve both done that to me too.”

Cloud groaned, and smiled. “When’s the last time you did that?”

“In the shower when I was still back in Junon I guess.” 

“I’d love to see that,” Aerith commented, and Cloud had to agree. 

“I’ll show you what I do in the shower if you show me,” he said sportingly to both of them, and Cloud and Aerith laughed and agreed. 

Then Cloud flipped them so that Zack was on top of him - and Zack straddled his waist, and placed his arms on Cloud’s chest. They kissed as Aerith massaged Zack’s back, legs, his butt – rubbed his hole and worked Zack open. Cloud could tell the way Zack was responding to her with stuttered, and then harsher breaths and moans how he was liking it. Cloud grabbed his ass with both hands, massaged the muscles, and pushed him open a little more, adding to Zack’s excitement. 

Zack rocked against Cloud, which also moved him on Aerith’s fingers. “Alright,” he told him eventually. 

Cloud excitedly flipped them again so that he was on top, and pushed into him just a little. Aerith got to the top of the bed and placed Zack’s head in her lap – and ran her fingers in his hair. 

“How’s that?” Cloud asked.

“Good, keep going,” he said. 

Cloud pushed in slowly. He was so, so tight around him. He felt so good. Then he roved his hands over him, and stroked his dick. At the same time, Aerith ran her hands over his chest and rolled a nipple between her fingers. Zack put one hand on Cloud’s waist, and the other on Aerith’s which was above his head. 

Cloud moved inside him, slowly at first, learning what earned him the best reactions - then building speed. Zack was slowly unravelling and he looked beautiful. He kept talking about how good it felt. Cloud built him up slowly until it was too difficult to hold himself back. 

Then he went all out. Zack grasped Cloud harder, and turned his head up and pulled Aerith toward him by the hip and began to devour her sex with his mouth and fucked her with is tongue as Cloud pushed into him. Aerith moaned and gasped at the attention, and Cloud groaned at the sight of it. 

Then Aerith smiled, settling fully over Zack’s face and then leaning, catlike, all the way forward, Cloud giving her some room, and sucking his dick. Both Aerith and Zack had to reach to overcome the height difference, Aerith tilting her head up and Zack curling in. Now Zack was moaning uncontrollably. Aerith checked in with Cloud with a look, and Cloud nodded that she should keep going. They’re both amazing. 

Cloud slowed his pace to watch them for some time, then picked it up again with renewed vigor, hitting his spot with a regularity that was driving Zack closer and closer still. With a few final, sharp thrusts, Zack came hard, yelling out. Cloud watched Zack’s partially-obscured face, and Aerith as she swallowed his release. It was all too much. Cloud came too, pushing deep into Zack. 

He pulled out and met Zack with a messy kiss, tasting Aerith on him. Then he went to Aerith and kissed her too, loving the taste of Zack on her just as much. 

Zack shifted and Aerith gave way, until his head was underneath her. As Cloud was kissing Aerith, Zack used his fingers and mouth on her until she came again, all but melting afterward. 

When they settled down, Zack lay his head on Cloud’s chest. Then Aerith did the same on the other side, and Cloud put a loving arm around each of them. 

“Zack, you’re…,” Cloud started, thinking of how amazing he was and not knowing how to finish. 

“Mr. Sexy Buns,” Aerith finished instead, making Zack laugh, and say, “Damn right I am.”

“And you, Cloud, can take charge like that whenever you want,” Aerith told him and winked. 

“Mr. Gimme-that-sweet-ass!” Zack said, making everyone laugh hard. 

“I was trying to be funny,” Cloud said though his continued laughter, defending himself. 

“Well you were! Oh my god! Oh, my side hurts from laughing!” Aerith said, and curled in on herself a little to catch her breath. 

“But yeah, I’m totally up for doing that again,” Zack said as they calmed down. “I could see it in how you were with Aerith, and in your eyes when you looked at me, when I offered – that you would have fucked me good! And, mmmmh, was I right!” 

Cloud, still smiling, and blushing now, kissed him for the compliment, but also to shut him up because to say it all so plainly was embarrassing. 

They stayed snuggled together after that, until they fell asleep. What Cloud didn’t know was that both Zack and Aerith made sure that Cloud fell asleep first.


	12. Cetra Ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You must be wondering how differently things will go...

Aerith stood in front of Barret and Cid with a set expression. She had pulled them aside because she thought they could do what was necessary. And said, “Barret, Cid, I need to ask you to do something that I can’t ask the others.”

That got their attention quickly. “Shoot, kid,” Cid said.

“If Sephiroth gets what he wants – if something happens where I can’t wake up, you have to help me go to the Lifestream. You’ll have to kill me.” They were shocked and said nothing. She continued, “I can’t ask Cloud, because he has so much on his shoulders already. I can’t ask Zack, though I thought about it, because even though he probably would, it would hurt him so much, and Cloud might resent him for it. And they need each other, especially if I’m gone. And the two of you have shown yourselves to be people that do the right thing, even when it’s really hard. And this – this will save the planet.”

She let her request hang in air as they looked at her, and then at each other. 

“When you put it that way, Aerith…yeah I’ve got you’re back,” Barret said.

“Me too,” Cid said roughly. “You’re a tough gal, ain’t ya?”

“Not really. I just do what I have to, too. And, the Lifestream isn’t something to fear. But Jenova is.” 

~

The Cetra Ruins. A place of legend, Zack knew, and the best place in the world for Aerith to speak to the planet, and use Holy. It was beautiful here, and he could also imagine what it once was. At least the roads and structures. There was also a magic quality to the place that Zack was deaf to. But he could see it in Aerith’s enamored expression, and excitement in Barret’s, and the calmness that came over Cloud as they walked.

Shinra’s been anxious to find this place, but there’s no sign of their presence. Sephiroth is here as well. They know this because of what Aerith knows. And they’re betting that he will try to take her out. To put her in a coma or something, instead of killing her. It’s a risk for them to be here, even there are ten of them. But they absolutely must use Holy, and quickly. They have no choice on that. 

Vincent and Cid stayed guard outside the building that Aerith said was their destination. Cait Sith stayed at the city entrance alone as lookout, less concerned as he was about his safety. Yuffie took to the shadows to keep an eye out the way she knew best. 

Aerith prayed from inside and revealed a hidden staircase. Zack, Aerith, Cloud, Barret, and Red all went down to the lower level. 

There was a shimmering pool on the far side of the room, and Aerith clenched a hand to her chest from the feel of it. Her eyes glowed from its reflection. They all scanned the room critically for danger and found none. Zack and Barret examined Cloud’s expression for any signs of Sephiroth’s control. They were good there, too. Cloud had wanted to stay away – having this many watching him was the compromise. She looked next to Zack and Cloud and then moved forward to the pool. 

Aerith walked to the altar at its center, knelt down, and began to pray. 

At length, Zack and Cloud moved closer to her, on high alert to danger. Scanned the room again. 

Pain bloomed from Zack’s back suddenly, and he felt the weight of Cloud leaning heavily against his back. Heard him say, “Well, someone needs to die today.” He cried out and pulled away from him, causing another wave of intense pain. Barret and Red tackled Cloud to the ground, and Zack spun around. A dagger skidded from Cloud’s hand. A menacing expression on his face faded to one of resistance. A dagger? He’s never known Cloud to have a dagger, he thought idly, and slumped down to the ground. 

Aerith ran to Zack’s side, worry all over her face, and healed him immediately. She was so powerful. Even more so here, in this place. Zack sighed in relief at the lessened pain. It would have to heal the rest of the way on its own. “Thanks,” he said with his whole heart. Then he assuaged her fear, saying, “We’ve got him, please, keep going, and then we can get out of here.”

Aerith nodded with a determined expression, “Yes, I believed it’s starting to work,” walked back into place, and prayed. 

Cloud was looking rattled now. “Zack, are you ok?”

“Just peachy,” he replied, trying to hide how strained he still was and failing.

“Fuck, I was aiming for your heart before I was able to fight back.”

The admission made Zack’s blood run cold. “Yeah, you got me a few inches away from my heart,” he said as he assessed the feel of it. Fuck.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Zack saw something free-falling, black and silver, from right over Aerith’s head. 

Sephiroth! 

Even as he moved, his body just going without any thought needed, straight to Aerith, he took in the cold look in Sephiroth’s eyes, his outstretched hand, palm down, aimed right for Aerith’s head for when he collided with her. ‘He’s gunna bash her head against the ground!’, Zack realized. But Zack was almost to her. Cloud was moving too, but he had to climb out from under Barret and Red and he was too far off. 

Zack realized he wasn’t going to make it either - at a run - before Sephiroth completed his free-fall. 

Aerith was lifting her head and looking at Zack now. He unsheathed his sword as fast he could and threw it where he estimated Sephiroth would be when the sword got there – two feet from Aerith’s head. Barely registered the renewed pain of his injury from the throw. 

And Zack prayed. 

The throw made Aerith startle out of place and to the side. She didn’t have time to get far, but it helped. 

Sephiroth unsheathed his own sword and batted Zack’s out of the way, just missing Aerith. He landed with a deep bend of his legs, his foot an inch from Aerith’s own, and then straightened up. 

That was so, uncomfortably, close. 

Aerith rolled out of the way as Cloud pounced forward to attack Sephiroth head-on. Barret ran to Aerith to give her a hand up and they both fell back behind Red, starting a long-range assault on Sephiroth. Confident now that Aerith was ok, Zack ran to get his sword that had slid against a nearby wall. 

Zack joined the fray, attacking Sephiroth from behind, forcing him to split his focus to two opposite sides. Now Sephiroth had both Cloud’s quick movements and Zack’s brute strength to deal with. Except it didn’t seem to trouble him too much, not even with the long-range attacks coming his way, and Nanaki darting in and out of range with precise attacks. 

Zack’s arm was weakening more and more where he was stabbed. 

Ok, here’s where they have to make a call. Stay or go? And part of that equation is, if Aerith didn’t finish what she has to do, would Sephiroth destroy this place so that she never can? He couldn’t ask her that either – not with Sephiroth right there. “Aerith, should we stay or go?” he asked her instead.

“You think you’re getting out of here alive?” Sephiroth taunted him. His attacks came harder, and quicker – Zack was struggling. 

“Fall back,” Cloud told him, and got himself in front of Sephiroth, keeping up with him. Zack walked backwards away from them, struggling to keep track of their movements, fascinated, his pride a bit hurt at being left behind. But only for a moment. Until he reminded himself of what gave those two such godlike ability in the first place. He switched focus to covering Aerith and Barret from Sephiroth’s occasional long-rage bursts of magic instead. 

“This has been fun,” Sephiroth told Cloud, “but enough is enough.” Sephiroth took the air, and disappeared, leaving a piece of Jenova behind. 

“Barret, call the others down here,” Cloud instructed. 

Already tired, they fought Jenova off. And when they were done, the room was so quiet. 

“Let’s get out of here,” Aerith said shakily, and everyone agreed. They all made sure everyone else was alright – then they started walking toward the steps again. 

Just then, a great burst of wind, so fast that it boomed, slammed into Aerith. It knocked her into the wall, and she hit the wall hard –really hard, cracking her against it. 

“Aerith!” Zack and Cloud yelled at the same time. Zack’s heart clenched tight. 

She fell to the ground heavily and the two ran to her. Zack checked her pulse and he told everyone she was alive. Cloud called her name, but she didn’t answer.

“We have to go,” Zack said firmly, in a tone brooking no argument - a bad feeling in his gut. “Big Guy, can you take her?” Zack was too injured, though he sorely wanted to carry her, protect her in his arms. And Cloud, unfortunately, could not be trusted to do so. 

Barret said he could. He picked her up carefully. 

“Try not to move her head,” Zack instructed. 

Barret nodded and tucked her against him. 

Zack looked to Cloud and could see the fear and guilt in his expression and tears in his eyes, though he was trying to hold them back. Zack was afraid too, but he knew they didn’t have time to waste. Zack put his arm around Cloud. “Let’s go get her help.” The sooner she saw a doctor the better. 

That broke Cloud of his thoughts. He nodded firmly and started heading out quickly. 

~

Barret placed her gently on the bed at the Inn at Icicle Inn, and Aerith opened her eyes, surprising everyone. “Hi everyone,” she said weakly.

Zack, who had just sat on the bed next to hers shot up again. “You’re awake!” he exclaimed, the boom his voice making Aerith wince. “Sorry,” he said quietly. His stab wound was partially healed, but he still needed treatment. 

“Yeah, it hurt a lot, but I actually faked getting knocked out,” Aerith explained in a low voice. “But then on the plane, I fell asleep for real. Using the White Materia, and all that fighting, really wiped me out.”

“You’re brilliant,” Zack told her, smiling. 

“Yeah, that was really smart.” Cloud agreed, “You had us fooled.”

“Let’s just hope it fooled Sephiroth, too,” Aerith told him. 

Yuffie burst into the room. “The doctor will be here in a minute,” she said. “Aerith,” she called, noticing she was awake, and went over to the bed.

“Thanks for taking care of me,” she told Yuffie. All of you.” She looked around the room with a genuine look of affection for each of them.

Cloud grabbed her hand, on the side opposite from Yuffie, and held it. Then the others, except for Zack, made themselves scarce, leaving the room. Zack took the newly open place on her other side, wincing at the pain it caused him to move, and took her other hand.

The doctor came in soon after and shooed Cloud out of the room. He waited outside, not knowing where to go except that he didn’t want to go too far. The cold air was refreshing and a needed distraction from his frayed thoughts. He could see the air puff out of his mouth as he breathed. Tifa joined him a moment later. 

They were silent for a while. Cloud took the chance to scan the town, too distracted till now to do so. It looked…really nice here. The kids were playing in the snow. The white of the snow was all around him and it seemed peaceful. Then, turning his thoughts back to himself, Cloud said, “They’ve both been hurt. Again. Even worse this time. And it’s my fault.”

“It’s not you, Cloud,” Tifa countered, expression open. “Don’t take all of that onto yourself.”

Cloud laughed at himself for falling into the same mental trap yet again. It was Aerith and Zack that usually pulled him out of it. Now Tifa was doing it too. “Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed. “I have to stop doing that at some point.” He let out a long breath. “I was so scared for her. Wondering if she would ever wake up again.”

“Me too,” Tifa said. Then, “Hey, can Sephiroth…feel your relief that she’s ok? Because, it would actually be good if he thought he won, I think. He would stop going after her.”

Cloud thought about it. “Maybe he can feel the relief. But, I still feel guilty enough that maybe it’ll fool him. Also, I don’t think he really understands emotions all that well besides the basics: happy, sad, angry…So, my being all muddled up could make it hard for him to read. I hope.”

“That’s probably true,” Tifa agreed, considering. “So, you’re ok?” she asked as she put a hand on his arm.

“Yeah, thanks Tifa.” He faced her and started to hug her, getting as far as getting his hands past her shoulders before second-guessing it. Would she not want to? She smiled at his awkwardness and pulled him into a full-on hug, arms around his waist, and head on his chest. He let his head rest on hers as he hugged her back. 

~

Zack was healed by the end of the day, but Aerith’s recovery was taking longer. The doctor had said that she would be alright with a few day’s rest – much to the relief of everyone. 

Cloud, Zack, and Tifa poked around town for a while. And…they found an abandoned house. But that wasn’t the surprising thing. There were some videos on the unlocked computer terminal and the Subject was someone that looked very much like Aerith. “Ifalna,” the ‘Professor’ said. 

Zack gasped, “That’s her mom!” he exclaimed. Cloud whipped his head around to him with his surprised expression, and then back to the video. 

“Then let’s bring her here when she’s better,” Cloud concluded. He would feel weird watching any more of them without her. Though…she spoke of the Cetra, and the Northern Crater. It could be useful information to all of them. They shouldn’t wait too long. The other two agreed easily. 

The next two days passed slowly, but they visited Aerith often. Sometimes she was asleep, and when she was awake, she was always happy to see them. 

On the third day, they encountered the Turk, Elena. She was easy enough to brush off, but her presence here was a really bad sign. She let slip that Rufus himself would be here soon. Shit, they had to move on if they wanted to avoid trouble. 

They went right to Aerith, and Cloud tried to keep his impatience to a minimum as they asked how she was doing. She was actually doing much better, and the doctor recommended that she take a talk. It turns out she was waiting for them so that they could walk together. Cloud thought that was really sweet. He offered his arm to her, which she took with a smile. 

Cloud, Zack, Aerith, and Tifa walked slowly around the town for a bit. “How are you feeling?” Zack asked.

“Pretty good,” Aerith told him.

“That’s great!” said Tifa enthusiastically. 

“It’s good timing. We…actually have to get out of town soon,” Cloud told her with some apology in his voice.

“What happened?” Aerith asked him.

“The Turks were sniffing around today. And we found out Rufus is coming up here too.”

“To the Crater, I suppose,” Aerith him. 

“That’s what…the video said,” Cloud said. 

“What video?” 

“Let us show you. It’s about your mother.”

Aerith’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Yes, show me now,” she said vehemently. Cloud started guiding her in the direction of the abandoned house. As they walked, Aerith added, “That’s right, this is her hometown.”

When they got the house, Aerith looked all around the ground floor. It was full of electronic equipment. “Feels an awful lot like Shinra around here,” Aerith commented. Cloud had to agree.

Tifa played the first video for Aerith. The one that they watched before. Aerith didn’t comment, but she was obviously absorbed with what she had watched. She took over the terminal and played each video, one after the other. 

It became apparent to Cloud as he watched them that the Norther Crater was the center of everything. The landing cite of Jenova, and where Sephiroth was pulling him now. It’s a still-present wound on the planet that is ripe with magical energy. A precursor to what Sephiroth wants from summoning Meteor. They had to go. 

He also saw how Professor Gast, who was asking Ifalna questions about the Cetra, treated her with a great respect and autonomy that Hojo never offered to any of them. Things were different in the beginning when it came to Shinra, he supposed. And he also saw the way that the two gradually fell in love with each other. He could also see a certain mischievousness in her that she shared with Aerith that made him smile. The two had Aerith together. It was then, that Aerith spoke for the first time. “He’s my dad?! Professor Gast…” 

Finally, in the last video, they saw how Hojo pulled apart the happy family – killed Gast, and took Ifalna and baby Aerith with him. The tortured cries coming from Ifalna at seeing him die in front of her eyes ripped through Cloud. The room was completely silent when the video ended. He turned to Aerith. Tears were streaming down her face, and Zack was already there, hugging her from behind. She held tightly onto his arms. 

Cloud went over to her too, and took her hand, twining their fingers. Tifa hugged his other arm, as if offering her own comfort through him to Aerith. “Aerith,” Cloud said. 

Aerith looked at him, pulled from her thoughts. “I’m alright,” she reassured. “It…makes sense that mom wouldn’t go without a fight.” She laughed a little. “I never knew who my father was…He loved her, didn’t he?” she asked leadingly. 

“He definitely did. And she loved him, too,” Zack told her. Aerith cried a little harder, held on tighter to the both of them. 

“Let’s see the rest of the house,” she said. “This is where they were happy.” 

They all went down the stairs to the living area, and Aerith took great care in looking around. Stroked her hand along a pink scarf gathered on the dresser. Looking at the pictures on display. She picked one up of Ifalna, Gast, and little Aerith, and she held it against her heart. She held onto it as she continued to look around. 

Cloud checked the time. “We have to start packing,” he said apologetically. 

“You…go on without me, for now,” Aerith said, first distantly, then looking him in the eye. 

Cloud looked back at her in surprise. 

“I should be in a coma,” she explained. “Sephiroth can’t see me.”

“He’s there, at the North Crater,” he said partly in question, and partly knowing it was true as he was saying it. 

“He is. Go, Cloud, and get the Black Materia back from him.”

“And leave you here? Alone? But, Shinra…”

“Are also going to the Crater,” she finished. He knew she was right. If Shinra knew the same things that their little group did, then that’s exactly where they were headed. 

He nodded. “Come to the Inn, though? While we pack.”

She smiled small, and nodded. 

“Ok, let’s tell the others we’re moving out,” Cloud told Zack and Tifa. 

~

Aerith joined Cloud and Zack in their room at the Inn, sitting down on the bed as the two packed up. “Cloud,” she called, and Cloud looked back at her. “She…my mom said that Jenova tricked the Cetra into believing she wanted to help the planet.”

Cloud thought he knew what she was getting at. “The same thing Sephiroth has been trying with me,” he stated. 

“Right. Just…remember not believe him. Or even when he’s kind of right, don’t believe his intentions. I’m not saying this because I know what will happen next, because I don’t. I’m saying this as someone who loves you.”

Cloud sat down next to her, expression soft. “I won’t. I promise. I’m here to stop him, and I will.” Then he turned to Zack. “And you’ll stop me, right? If I get turned around?”

Zack looked pained but resolved at the request. “You’ve got it,” he said with a lump in his throat. 

“We’ll come back here when we’re done. And, like we just decided with everyone – you’ll be our last defense. If we fail – finish the Holy spell,” Cloud said. 

She nodded, with her own sense of resolution. “It won’t take much more to finish the spell,” she confirmed. She wasn’t doing so already was because of her injury – or else she would be on her way back the Cetra Ruins while Sephiroth was about to be distracted by Cloud and the rest. If she tried it right this moment from the Ruins – she might succeed, or she might die of the strain. Even one more day of rest will make a big difference. And then, if Metor is called – she will do it, and give it everything she has. 

Cloud smiled at her with adoration and kissed her. “You’re the strongest person I know,” he told her. Aerith was surprised at his words. “It’s true.” 

“He’s right. You’re a rock,” Zack confirmed.

Aerith didn’t know what to say to either of them. She got up and hugged Zack next, and kissed him. “Stay safe, both of you,” she said. 

“You too, Aerith,” Cloud said. She turned and hugged him tight. 

“We’ll be back soon,” Zack said, “with the Black Materia.”


	13. Highwind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team goes to the Northern Crater, and all hell breaks loose. Cloud is subjected to the full force of his connection with Sephiroth. These are trying times, but at least they have some friends. Non-con this chapter.

Barret stayed behind with Aerith – to keep her safe as she recovered, and to help her do what she had to do if it came to that. 

When Cloud and the rest crested the top of Gaia’s Cliff, they were met with the breathtaking view of the healing Northern Crater. Immense amounts of magical energy over the entire crater gushed out from the planet, and gusted about like a hurricane that would probably sweep them away if they weren’t careful. Cloud’s heart pounded in his chest. They made their careful way down into the crater, and then onward towards its center. 

They passed huge numbers of emaciated Sephiroth clones. They were much worse off than the last time he’d seen them in Nibelheim. Many of them were falling off the steep terrain, and getting carried away as they ambled slowly along. They were barely functioning anymore. 

~

When the team got near the center of the crater, Sephiroth greeted them, appearing suddenly to them all. 

They were all pulled into a shared hallucination. 

Sephiroth showed them how Zack had been in Nibelheim. That wasn’t surprising. What was the point? Cloud actually looked offended at the tactic. But what Sephiroth told them – that Cloud was a Sephiroth clone all along. Made five years ago in that lab with the help of Tifa and Zack’s memories of him. It was ridiculous of course, Cloud even said that it was ridiculous, but Zack saw that it was getting to Cloud anyway. 

It was an unprovable hole in the argument they have been making all this time – that they knew Cloud, and that was how they were sure he was him. That’s what made it even more suspicious.

“Don’t trust anything coming from him,” he reminded Cloud.

“I know,” he replied. 

~

Suddenly, Cloud was all alone, sitting on a chair, tied to a (reinforced) metal pipe on some sort of ship. He looked out the window, and saw that it was coasting through the air. The Shinra airship? He’s never been on it before.

Through his confusion, Cloud started to feel that compulsion to follow grow stronger. 

He heard a noise and stood up, on high alert. He looked all around himself, and saw nothing.

Then he felt a large, hard body pressing against his back. Heard the chair clatter as it was knocked to the side. He gasped, but had no room to spring away, the pole was right in front of him. He knew immediately that it wasn’t Zack. 

“This is what you have to look forward to from your ‘friends’,” Sephiroth teased, mouth close to his ear. “They don’t trust you. And they shouldn’t, should they?” 

“If it comes to this, I’ll understand. It’s you we don’t trust. Not a single word.” Cloud shot back. “Get away from me,” he spat. 

Sephiroth pressed closer instead. Cloud could see a few strands of his silver hair go over his shoulder, felt them graze his skin, making him tingle despite himself. “You’re not really here,” Cloud affirmed, not entirely sure himself.

“No, I am not. But it’s difficult to tell the difference, isn’t it?”

“I have nothing to say you.”

“Not even, “Give back the Black Materia”?”

“It’s a pointless request to make.”

“Are you resigned to the inevitable conclusion to our exchanges?”

Sephiroth was intentionally misunderstanding his meaning. “It just means there’s no point arguing with you. Not that there’s no point in stopping you.”

He laughed. 

“Why are you here?” Cloud asked.

“To make my offer to you clearer, dear Cloud. Join me, and gain power as I do. You can’t hold such immense power as I can, but you can hold some. Would like to become a demi-god? Don’t you want to answer the call to me?”

The call to be near him was more appealing than it had any business being. “I’m not interested.”

“No?”

Cloud felt him press his hardness into his lower back. Oh my god. Cloud kicked backward, and Sephiroth stepped aside and out of the way, before moving back against him. 

“I admit the call is a different need than this, but it’s not incompatible. I’ve seen it in your mind, how you want me. I offer that to you as well.” He pressed against his ass this time, he could feel how big he was - and Cloud held in a moan. Those two needs were getting confusingly tangled in his mind. 

He thought of Zack and Aerith. The love he felt for them. That was what he wanted. Not this.

“You think of them? Aren’t they disgusted with who you are? You abuse them and betray them. You aren’t one of them anyway. You’re like me. They don’t know what that pull is like.” Sephiroth rubbed himself against him and Cloud was finding it hard to think beyond the drive to be with him. Cloud pushed back, and moaned, vaguely aware he should be embarrassed but unable to be.

He could feel him smile against his neck. Then he opened Clouds pants and pulled them and his boxer briefs past his ass. He felt the jostling as he opened his own pants and firmly rubbed his naked cock along the cleft of his ass. 

Cloud was elated, completely out of his mind with arousal and oneness. They needed to join together. And it was a need, like eating, and drinking, and breathing. 

Sephiroth wrapped an arm around his waist and thrust his considerable girth inside him. Cloud threw his head back into his chest with wanton need. The glide was easy – reminding Cloud that this was all in his head (and yet real enough all the same). 

Sephiroth pushed him into the pole and fucked him hard and deep, starting straight away at a demanding pace. Cloud held onto the pole desperately. He got close to his ear again and said, “This is how you dream of me. Is it everything you wanted?” 

“Yes,” Cloud said in-between two stuttered breaths. And it was. He used to have wet dreams of Sephiroth being rough with him. He’s even had some since waking up – and those were rougher still. Darker than his younger self could have thought of. 

Sephiroth wrapped his hand around his dick and pumped him as he fucked him hard. 

As Cloud came, crying out, Sephiroth said, “Only I can give you what you need.” He buried himself deep in Cloud, and Cloud could feel his cock twitch with orgasm. He came so much. Just like Cloud. 

He pulled out of Cloud and turned him around, leaned him against the pole as he leaned flush to Cloud. He dipped his head close. He was so tall. And hovered there. His lips were so close to Cloud’s and it’s like he was challenging him to close the distance. 

Well, knowing something is a trap doesn’t necessarily make you immune to it. Cloud leaned up, kissed his lips – just barely – just the slightest pressure, and pulled away with a gasp. Surprised at himself. His lips were soft and warm. He didn’t know what he was expecting except something not so inviting. 

Sephiroth smiled small in victory, and he then was gone. 

The world around him came back. Zack was there, right in front of him, and really worried for him. 

Shit, shit, shit!

“Cloud! Are you ok?! Are you hurt?!” Cloud focused on Zack to shake himself loose of the memory of what just happened. 

“It was – just an illusion,” he told Zack. Maybe he was also trying to convince himself of that. 

“It looked like you were in pain…”

“No, I …” Cloud stopped, unsure how to continue. He looked around, and everyone was watching him with concern. “It wasn’t painful,” he assured Zack. 

Zack looked unconvinced, but let it go. Cloud could tell him later. Now that it was over, he was feeling like himself again. They should keep going.

~ 

They pressed on, and Jenova appeared before them and attacked them. More powerful now than ever before – no doubt energized by this place. 

They found the Black Materia with her remains. 

They succeeded! They have the Black Materia back! They can keep if from Sephiroth and prevent Meteorfall.

Zack could see Cloud’s reluctance to hold onto it. He asked for someone to take it. When Zack looked around, everyone was apprehensive. Zack stepped forward and took it, exchanging a look with Cloud like a solemn vow: ‘I will keep it safe.’

Rufus’ airship flies over their heads. They have to press on, quickly. 

Zack changes parties to keep a distance from Cloud. Cloud’s group runs ahead, while Zack’s finishes off some monsters. When he looks ahead, he sees Tifa – hurt and lying on the ground. He looks to his team but doesn’t see them. What? He ran up to her, kneeled down, and he could see the panicked look on her face. She said Cloud was hurt too, and that he needed the Black Materia. 

Zack’s heart pounded at hearing that Cloud needed help. “I’m fine, go!” she insisted. He ran forward, worried. Then a doubt tugged at him. No, Cloud can’t be near the Black Materia. “I can’t!” he yelled back to her. “You have to! I don’t see the others!” 

“No, you don’t understand!” Tifa yelled. “Just give it to him!”

“I can’t!” he yelled again. “And, why would the Black Materia help?? “Why?!....”

She looked back at him sternly. She…doesn’t make that face. But Sephiroth does.

“Fuck you, you twisted asshole!”

She looked hurt then, like she would cry. When Zack did nothing, her face filled with hate and she morphed into Sephiroth. 

Sephiroth disappeared. 

He looked ahead, to try and see that the real Tifa was safe. He saw Cloud instead, stumbling forward, he looked real hurt. Blood pouring from his back. And Zack ran - caught up with Cloud and his group at the crater center. Cloud was on the ground, wound straight through his abdomen. Zack’s blood ran cold. 

He ran up to Cloud, and stopped a distance away. “Cloud!” he yelled. He distantly noted that Rufus and other Shinra cronies were there as well – his defenses rose, though he kept his attention on Cloud. 

Cloud coughed up blood. Zack ran the rest of the way to him and cradled him in his arms. “Cloud!” Then he covered the wound with his hands to stifle the blood flow, and using healing spells over and over. 

Cloud looked back at him weakly. He was barely conscious. And he reached out his hand slowly, to hold onto Zack’s arm with a shaking hand. Except that his hand clasped over the Black Materia he carried instead. And he snatched it from Zack – and stood up and backed away fluidly. He – didn’t look weak anymore. The blood was gone too. 

Cloud looked on at him with love in his eyes as he apologized to him – to all of them – over and over. “I’m sorry.” He thanked them for everything. Zack felt a deep sense of foreboding.

“Am I really a clone?” Cloud asked Hojo, and Zack hadn’t really registered that he was there until now. “A failed clone?”

“You’re not!” Zack yelled. 

“You are,” Hojo said. “Not even worthy of a number.”

“Give me one now!” Cloud insisted. And it hurt Zack deep to hear that from him. 

“He’s fucking with you!” Zack told him. 

“No,” Hojo said decisively. Zack seethed with a murderous hatred. 

Cloud hunched his shoulders deep, dejected. Then a force carried him up and away. The same as Sephiroth’s. And Zack felt the loss acutely. 

Zack took in Rufus, Hojo, Scarlet, and Heiddeger. Tifa and Vincent. They all watched helplessly as Cloud approached something in the ice. Sephiroth! The true Sephiroth was frozen in the ice! He…was going to give him the Black Materia. Zack’s heart sank…low…so low.

“We all have to leave,” Rufus announced with urgency. He offered Zack’s team passage as well, on the airship. 

“No, Cloud!” Zack yelled. Tifa yelled out too, for Cloud to stop. “You go ahead,” he told Tifa and the others.

“It’s too late. If you don’t leave with us, you’ll die,” Rufus insisted. 

Zack called out to Cloud again. Tifa pulled Zack by the arm to get him moving. Pleaded with him with her eyes as he looked back at her. 

He cast his eyes about again. Looking for a way to reach Cloud. He looked, but there was no possible way to climb to him.

Fuck.

It broke his heart to do it, but he left. 

They ran to the airship, the Highwind. Hojo was running in front of him in a panic. And the absurdity of temporarily having the same goal as this monster struck him hard. He was the reason for all of this! For waking up Jenova, for Sephiroth, for what happened to Cloud (and him), for all of Cloud’s resulting suffering. And for what happed to Aerith’s family. 

He's the reason that Cloud is in danger right now.

Zack was filled with a terrible bone-deep rage – all on top of the frustration of their current situation. He unsheathed his sword, and impaled Hojo straight through from the back while holding a hand over his mouth to cover his scream of agony, all in one fluid movement. Only Tifa, at the back of the running group, turned around as she continued to run.

Zack flicked his sword to the side to drop Hojo and never stopped moving, recovering his pace, and re-sheathing his sword. He bored into Tifa’s eyes with everything he was feeling. 

She was visibly shocked, but then resigned understanding came over her face and she turned around again.

~

Cloud looked at Sephiroth through the ice. His eyes peacefully closed. But he knew his mind, his soul, was wide-awake. 

Well, Cloud was here now. And Sephiroth could truly wake up, because he brought what he needed – the Black Materia. He would bring Meteorfall and become truly powerful and rule over all. All Cloud wanted was to be by his side. To help him any way that he could. 

The ice heated around Sephiroth, and it began to crack. He opened his eyes and Cloud and Sephiroth looked at each other. His greatness showed in this eyes, and in his determined expression. 

Sephiroth pulled forward, away from the melting ice that had contained him, and said to Cloud, directly in his mind, without having to use words, “Cloud. You’ve come to me.” 

Cloud could feel how pleased he was, and it made Cloud so happy. 

Sephiroth outstretched his hand, and Cloud gave him the Black Materia. Sephiroth’s satisfaction grew to new heights. It reverberated in his mind. 

Sephiroth moved close to him, and Cloud’s heart beat fast. He wanted Sephiroth to kiss him. Even though their reunion already made them so close, and satisfying in a different way. Still, a kiss would add something to this moment.

Sephiroth understood this and told him, “I will be close to you however you need,” and bent his head and kissed Cloud. 

This is the first time that they have touched in real life. His lips were still cold, but firm and full of the need to connect just as Cloud was. Cloud placed his hand on his bare chest. They both let the mixture of affections mingle and blur as they kissed. Sephiroth opened his mouth, grabbed the back of his head, and deepened the kiss, which Cloud returned with longing.

At length, the kiss ended. Sephiroth moved away, and spoke of his plan. First in a near whisper, and his voice grew louder and more prophetic as he went on. How he would injure the planet, become a god, and rule over all. 

And Cloud’s surety - that his place was beside Sephiroth - was slipping away from him… He clinged to it at first as it faded. Then his mind snapped into focus, and he railed against it. 

No, this was all wrong. He has just given Sephiroth the power to call Meteor. “No, wait,” Cloud said, cutting into Sephiroth’s speech. 

Sephiroth’s expression, previously open and exultant, hardened with distrust. “No?”

“You made me give it to you. I can’t let you keep it!” Cloud aimed his sword at Sephiroth. 

Sephiroth looked disappointed. “You cannot hope to beat me. But, it’s a shame that you’re not as convinced to stay with me as I had hoped. I don’t wish to give up on you. Do you…fear for your loved ones? Aerith was too dangerous as she was. With the power of a god, however, I can revive her for you. Now, if I can promise that Aerith with awaken, and Zack will survive, will you join me?”

“What?” Cloud was outraged at the question. Baffled that he could possibly think that was a convincing offer. “And what about everyone else? So many would die.” 

“The alternative, of course, is that none of you will survive this. Without Aerith to stop me, Meteor is inevitable.” Cloud knew that Aerith was fine, but that’s not all that was wrong with what he was saying. “And your friends?” Sephiroth offered. “I will let your friends survive as well.”

How could Sephiroth ask such as ridiculous thing? Everyone deserved the chance at life, not just the people that matter to Cloud the most. 

Sephiroth could feel his resolve not to join him, and his disappointment washed through Cloud. “Very well,” he said resigned. He raised his arms and concentrated, the Black Materia hovered in midair before him. Cloud reached out an arm to snatch it, and he was pushed back forcefully by an unseen energy so that he banged hard into an ice wall. 

And then, everything turned bright white. 

~

Zack woke up in a beautiful Shinra suite. He was in a chair, with his arms behind his back. He tested the restraint, and it was very strong. It must be made specifically for SOLDIERS. 

The last thing he remembers is being on the Highwind, and the eddies of the Lifestream all around them. The airship was bouncing all around and then his head careened into the ship’s railing hard. His head still hurt now, but only a little. 

“You’re awake,” a woman said, superior and assertive. He looked up and saw Scarlet reading over some paperwork with a hard drink in her hand. The fuck?!

“Scarlet, it’s been a long time,” he said.

“You’ve eluded us for a long time, Zack. Though I always thought it would be a pity to loose such an exceptional SOLDIER as yourself. And yet,” she stood now, “we need a scapegoat.”

“For what?....”

“Scarlet tilted her head toward the window, encouraging him to look. Meteor loomed in the sky. Looking small, but it was there, and it was coming. Zack’s blood ran cold. “Meteor.”

“We’re doing all we can to stop it, but in order to prevent mass-panic, someone must be blamed and punished. We also have the fighter girl, and the former Turk. It – doesn’t have to be you…” Want flickered across her face before it was gone again. 

Zack thought he knew what she was suggesting. He raised a questioning, incredulous brow, then her words really sunk in. “You want to execute them,” he said. 

“Yes, Tifa first. As soon as she wake up. A member of Avalanche…she’s a great start. Rufus is set on it. I had to pull a huge favor to give you the chance to be my…personal bodyguard.” She raked her eyes over him more openly. 

When he was younger, he was fooled by her insincere charm. Went to bed with her a few times. By the complacent, almost bored look on the guard by the doors face, she’s made quite the habit for herself since then. The guard doesn’t flinch even with the handcuffs, though? Damn. “Your bodyguard,” he echoed. 

She came closer. Sat on his lap from the side, and put her arms around his shoulders. “What do you say? You’ve had the job before, and I find that I’ve missed it. Troopers can play the part, but they’re too…malleable. I prefer someone that really knows what he’s doing. Or,” she pulled away some,” would you prefer to keep your appointment in the gas chamber?”

His heart beat wildly at the thought of his friends suffering through that. Or himself. He knew he couldn’t outright refuse her. She’s highly unstable. It would risk making her angry, and then she would lock him somewhere that he won’t be able to help them all escape. He needed to hedge…buy time.”

“I’m…taken, I can’t just play around like I used to Scarlet.”

“You?” she asked, surprised, and laughed incredulously. Then she looked at him seriously. “Don’t you think they would forgive you, given the circumstances?” She stroked his face, traced the scar on his jaw. “Is it that Ancient? Where is she nowadays?” 

“In a coma,” he said sadly. 

She laughed derisively. Then she took out a phone. His phone, he realized and unlocked it with her fingerprint. She must have already used his hand to unlock it while he was out cold and switched it to her print. 

She pulled up a photo of him with her - smiling contentedly together, Zack’s forehead to Aerith’s temple - and leaned close so that they could both look at it at the same time. “She is adorable. And you think to wait for her to wake up?”

“She’s worth it. I’m actually quite the romantic,” he commented. “And there’s also…Cloud.”

“Cloud?” now she was laughing harder. Then she swiped and there was a picture of all three of them, Zack, Aerith, and Cloud. It was Zack’s favorite picture. Zack and Aerith were beaming on either side of Cloud, who was looking a little pissed off that Zack was suddenly taking their picture. 

She swiped again, and it was the two of them leaning on each other in a quiet moment, Cloud with a rare smile. 

“Of course, I see it now,” Scarlet commented. “But, Zack, surely Cloud is dead. You saw the massive energy expended from calling Meteor…”

“He’s not,” Zack asserted. “I won’t believe that.”

“You really are the romantic, aren’t you?” she almost sounded a bit sad now. “But…it’s time to be a realist,” she said more firmly. “It might be the end of the world, after all.” She straddled him, positively purring now. “We should make the best of it. It’s too late to fight each other. It’s all of us against Sephiroth now.”

“Then don’t kill my friends!” he yelled. 

Scarlet wasn’t phased. “Like I said, Rufus is set on it. There’s no persuading him when he’s like this. But, I can keep you safe, Zack, if you work for me…” She took down the straps of her red dress, displaying her breasts. It was an effort for Zack not to look on her pityingly for having such a high opinion of herself that he could forget about everything else but her. 

She rubbed her sex against him in a way that supposed to be exceedingly enticing - and it did nothing for him whatsoever. She did it again, pressed herself close and kissed him forcefully. He kissed back minutely. She pulled away quickly, and looked at him angrily for his lack of enthusiasm. 

“I worry for my friends, and the people I love. Surely you can understand,” he said persuasively. Zack was actually quite sure she did not understand anything to do with affection. 

She clucked her tongue, and said, “Maybe you’ll be feeling more like yourself tomorrow. I can’t guarantee your safety beyond then.” She pulled up her straps again and stood up, turning her back on him. Then she snapped her fingers, making the guard at the door snap to attention. “Get Roche for me,” she told him. He left with a crisp salute and a shout of, “Ma’am!”

Roche strode in a few minutes later, a lascivious smirk on his face. “You wanted to see me ma’am?” He noticed Zack a moment later, still handcuffed to his heavy metal chair. A flicker of recognition was on his face, until he smoothed it away and looked back to Scarlet. “Uhh,” He started. 

“Zack here is going to be my bodyguard,” Scarlet told him. “It’s best he get used to things now. And, maybe he’ll participate the next time.” She walked up to Roche, wrapped her arms around him and pulled his face close to hers. “Maybe we can entice him?”

“Sure,” he said, and kissed her heatedly. He picked her up easily and carried her over to the sofa. She was getting off on his show of strength, wrapping more tightly around him. He placed her carefully on the couch and he stayed on his knees as they kissed. 

“Use that talented mouth of yours, Roche,” she told him. He kissed down her body, and moved the skirt of her dress delicately aside, took off her panties and parted her legs. He wrapped his arms around her legs and roved his tongue over her and into her with enthusiasm. She started to moan, and Zack turned away. A moment later he heard her say, “No, no, Zack. I want you to take notes,” she told him. “Watch carefully. My tastes have changed over the years.” 

No kidding. What was once sexy ambition in Zack’s eyes has become twisted by her successful rise to the top. She liked the way these powerful men bent to her will. 

Her phone rang, she looked at it, and said, “Shit, I need to answer.” And she touched Roche’s head to get him to stop. “What is it?” she barked into the phone. She listened for a few moments and then yelled, “Then put more men on it. Do you need me to decide everything?” and hung up, throwing the phone onto the cushion next to her. “Please, continue,” she told Roche. 

He smiled at her and ate her out with even more enthusiasm, making her forget her anger. 

And the men got off on her power as well, Zack mused. 

“Fuck me,” Scarlet commanded.

And Roche went up her body in an instant and laid her down. Undid his pants and slid right into her solidly, making her grunt in pleasure. “We’ve entered a trying moment for humanity, Roche, make it count,” she told him. He fucked her hard with a practiced precision. Just the right display of strength to drive her wild. He grabbed her breast under her dress and pulled it out for him to fondle. And she hiked up his shirt and felt his muscled abdomen beneath – curled her leg around him. 

“Zack likes men as well, Roche, maybe we can all play together soon,” she told him through harsh breath. 

“He’s not really my type,” Roche replied, “but for you Scarlet....I could give it a try.” 

“You like the cute ones, isn’t that right?” Scarlet asked him. “You told me once how you would love to have Cloud. Maybe Zack could tell you what that’s like…if you ask him nicely.”

Roche seemed to recognize the attempt at manipulation, and diplomatically fucked her harder instead of answering. She took that as a victory anyway and laughed through her moans. 

When they were done, Scarlet got a knock on the door. She grumbled, put on a robe and answered it, and Roche tucked himself back in. Zack could hear her verbal garbage at whoever was there from where he sat. A moment later she was back and straightening out her dress and hair. “I have to go,” she said. “Roche, feel free to stay for little while, then it’s back to work with you. While you’re at it, try talking some sense into Zack.” She left the room without a goodbye.

Zack and Roche stared at each other awkwardly. Then Roche let out a breath, got a drink and sat down on the sofa, near Zack. 

“Is Cloud ok?” Roche asked.

“I don’t know,” Zack said heavily. “He might be.” 

“You’re together then?”

“Yeah.”

Roche laughed. “Guess I should stop hitting on him.”

Zack smiled small, and didn’t reply to that. “He might be alive. I need to find him. And get our friends out of here first.” 

Roche looked out the window. At Meteor in the sky. “You’re trying to stop that thing?”

“Yeah.”

Roche thought, nodded to himself, and said, “I’m going to help you escape.” 

Zack looked at him wide eyed. “You are?”

“It’s stupid to keep you all back here when you can do something about all this. And Cloud is…something else. If he’s alive…it may make all the difference.”

“Thank you, Roche,” he said sincerely. Zack could see Roche’s eyes getting wilder as he thought, probably starting to make plans in his head. “Just…keep your head, alright buddy?” It was a reminder. The kind he often made to the hot-head SOLDIERS he knew. Though, he hasn’t actually seen that crazed look from him this whole time until just now. 

“I know what you mean,” he replied, looking away for a moment, then back again. “These are…sobering times. I won’t fuck it up.” 

“You could come with us…” Zack offered. 

“Yeah, maybe I will.” He looked at Zack for a long moment. “I’m not on her side. I’m just getting by,” he assured. 

“Yeah, I get it, man,” he said in understanding. 

Just then, a second class SOLDIER came through the door. 

And shit, even though a helmet covered his face, he would recognize him anywhere...because he almost always had his helmet on. 

“I’ll be taking you to your cell. Let’s get moving,” he said, as if he didn’t know him. 

Zack took the cue and didn’t call out to him. It’s possible all three of them were on the same side, but there’s no way to know that yet. He hoped that they were. “I’m handcuffed to the chair,” he said instead. 

Kunsel came over and unlocked one wrist, then guided him to stand and relocked it when he was free of the chair. Kunsel marched him toward the door by the arm. 

“See ya,” Roche waved with nonchalance, sipping his drink. 

Zack was all but vibrating with excitement at seeing his friend. He didn’t know how long he could keep his mouth shut. Kunsel guided him into a nearby empty office and closed the door behind them. Zack whirled around to him. “Kunsel!” he yelled immediately in excitement. 

“Zack!” he put his hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a hug and pat on the back, laughing. Zack smiled so big it could have broke his face. Then Kunsel sobered. “Damn, top brass wants you dead! You can’t stay here.”

“Hey, show me the door and I’m gone. But I’m not leaving without my friends,” he replied.

“Then it’s a good thing I’ve got help. The rest of your team is on it, too. I’ll play my part.”

Zack was immeasurably relieved that they weren’t enemies, and relieved all over again that a plan was already in motion. “When?”

“Tomorrow.” Before Scarlet gets frisky he hopes. 

“What time?”

“AM. That’s I know for sure yet.” 

“Hopefully Scarlet will leave me alone ‘til then. Talk to Roche, too. He said he’d help. He wants out too.”

Kunsel looked concerned. “It’s really like that with Scarlet, huh? I’ll make sure she stays busy. Roche does? Wouldn’t have guessed.”

“Why not?”

“He seems loyal to Scarlet. Real loyal,” he said suggestively. 

“He told me…he’s just getting by.” 

Kunsel looked surprised, then a little guilty. “Ok, Zack.” Then, “Hey, I heard Cloud was with you. All this time, until what happened at the Crater.”

Zack smiled. “Yeah, you should see him,” he said warmly. 

Kunsel laughed. “The Captain said you had it bad for him. I didn’t believe it! But I can see it. Look at you, you stupid puppy!” 

He smiled, until he thought about how he doesn’t know where Cloud is now. “I…don’t know what’s happened to him. I have to get out of here and find him!” 

“Hey, you don’t have to wait much longer. We’ll get you out.” 

Zack nodded, calming down as much as he could. “What about you, are you coming with us?”

“I’ll probably have to after this. It’s too high profile. I won’t be able to cover up my involvement.”

Zack looked back at him with appreciation. “Thanks, man. I mean it.”

“Don’t give me that,” he dismissed. “You’ve lost a lot more than I’m about to give up. And…is Cloud really that strong? There’s been a lot of talk around here.” 

“He is,” Zack said, with fire in his eyes. “And Aerith too. They both are.”

“Your girl, Aerith, is involved too?”

“She is, she’s amazing!” he chirped as he smiled, making Kunsel laugh again. “I won’t say anything more here though,” he said more seriously. 

Aerith. The first thing they had to do when they escaped was meet up with Aerith – and he knew where she would be. 

“You’ll have to explain all that with Cloud and Aerith, man - but not now. Now, it’s been too long, and I have to get you to your cell,” Kunsel said. 

“Be gentle,” he told him, teasing. 

~

Aerith and Barret walked through the snowy field, Icicle Inn behind them, on their way back to the Cetra Ruins. She tried to focus on their goal, but her thoughts inevitably went to the others. 

They got texts from Cid yesterday.

Cap: Everything went to hell.

Cap: Tifa, Zack, Vincent in Junon Shinra. Getting them back tomorrow. 

Cap: We don’t know where Cloud is. 

Captured? Missing? It was more than enough to worry Aerith ceaselessly. Barret had her figured out though. He kept them going - distracted her with planning and travel. And talking up their friends, saying how they’d get the job done, no problem. 

And so, here they were, halfway back to the caves that lead to the Ruins. When they got another message.

Beefcake: We’re on the way! If you see a giant fucking airship, that’d be us :D

Aerith nearly cried in relief that Zack was alright. Barret read off their coordinates off his phone, and Aerith typed them in with shaky fingers. Then typed again. 

Sexy Cetra: We’ll be waiting.

About an hour later, the Shinra airship came into view, and landed near them. Aerith couldn’t keep the smile from her face. Zack ran out of the ship as soon as it landed, and Aerith took off at a run to meet him. They collided into a hug, and Zack swung her around, laughing. Then he set her down and kissed her. They settled with their foreheads touching. 

“Aerith,” he said. 

“Zack, I’m so glad you’re alright. You were captured by Shinra?”

“Yeah. The Captain and the rest got me out. Along with an old friend, and a new one.” Aerith looked at him questioningly, and he laughed. “I’ll tell you all about it when we have the time. But, we need to find Cloud.”

“Cloud,” she said pained. “What happened to him?”

“The short story is that he got caught up in the mako storm.”

“I saw it from town, it was…tremendous.” 

“He could be anywhere. Or, he might not have…”

“We’ll find him, Zack.” 

“Could you use your power to find him?”

“Not without risking Sephiroth noticing me,” she explained. “I can’t connect again until the moment I finish summoning Holy. 

“Alright. We’ll look the old-fashioned way. And you? Will you continue on?”

Aerith thought about it. “If I summon Holy now, with Cloud missing, Sephiroth can’t be beaten. And, with the airship, we can get me where I need to be quickly. So, I want to come with you. Search for Cloud. He’s the missing piece now.” She felt guilty. “Look at me, talking about him like a piece on a board game. I want him to be safe. I want to see him again.” 

It’s alright, he said, stroking her face. “There’s a lot at stake right now. Yes, come with us, love.” 

She nodded, and looked over to Barret who had been listening - and looking at the airship to give them some semblance of privacy. 

“Alright then, let’s find him,” he said with enthusiasm. “I knew his skinny ass would get blown away someday.”


	14. Mideel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team finds Cloud, Cloud finds himself, and they start to heal.

Aerith, Zack, and Tifa step through the curtain partition at the clinic. Cloud is there, sitting in a wheelchair, and he is…lost. Zack made a hurt noise in his throat. 

“Mako poisoning. The worst case I’ve ever seen. He…should be dead from a case this bad.” the doctor said. Zack more than anyone else has seen Cloud deeply lost in the haze, so his reaction is understandable. Cloud looked around himself into nothing, made indistinct sounds from his throat.

He doesn’t see them there - can’t even speak. 

“It’s even worse than before,” Zack said, with a wounded voice. Aerith held onto his arm. Then she moved forward toward Cloud, kneeled down, and looked into his face. “Cloud?” she called gently. He didn’t respond. 

“He won’t…” Zack started, but couldn’t finish. He shook his head and came over as well. Called to Cloud. Talked to him like he normally would. “Hey Cloud. We found you. You were washed up by the Lifestream. You’ll get through this, just like before. We’re here for you.” 

Tifa, with tears in her eyes, talked to him too. Then left. 

Aerith and Zack sat down and stayed with Cloud for a long time, sometimes hugging each other tight for support, until Barret came in. He took in what happed to Cloud for himself, but wasn’t entirely surprised by what he saw when he came in. Tifa must have told him something of it. And he cursed at how bad it was. Then he said to them, “We…need to keep moving. There isn’t much time.” 

He was right. Meteor hung large in the sky now. The foreboding feeling she always got from thinking of the sky came back a hundredfold.

Zack’s hand moved frantically where it rested on his leg. It seemed they had things to do without Cloud. And Zack…there’s no way he can sit still and wait. 

“I’m going to stay with him,” Aerith told them. “You all go ahead.” Zack looked like he might say he’ll stay too. Then didn’t. “It’s alright. The best thing you can do – for us, for the world, for Cloud – right now is to keep going.”

Zack stood, still unsure, and eventually nodded. “I’ll pave the way for you, Cloud, until you wake up again.” He put a hand on his head, rubbed his hair gently, eyes fond. Barret turned and said, “We’ll be on the ship,” and left. 

Zack turned to Aerith next, embraced her around the waist, and looked at her with tremendous love in his eyes. He kissed her and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He kissed all around her face, and Aerith kissed his cheek lingeringly, stroked his hair. Then their mouths were together again, and they deepened the kiss. 

She felt more grounded now. It bolstered them both, she thought. 

When they parted, Zack said, “We’ll come back again, before too long.” Aerith nodded and pat his shoulder lightly. He smiled a little, turned and left. 

~

Cloud was floating. He had no idea how long. Images came and went, but nothing gained enough clarity for him to really recognize it. Some things made him feel happy. A beautiful woman in pink with a kind voice. Some things made him afraid…black and silver. 

Then, after some time, he was able to think more clearly, but the things he thought of pulled him in so that he couldn’t think of anything else. They were painful things. 

And then Tifa appeared. She had been all tied up with those painful memories. 

But this was the real Tifa. And she helped him realize these memories that imprisoned him made him who he was. The real him. 

And he remembered - everything. Those missing pieces…were his again. 

The way that Nibelheim really happened. He really was there – but a trooper. Just like Zack told him. 

His failure to save Tifa when they were little. The way the adults blamed him for it. 

The day that Tifa brushed him off, when her mom died. And he realized he wasn’t important to her. It made him want to be…more for her. And, he never really had any friends, and he started to think that it’s because he was different – better than them.

And then he thought of Tifa as she is now. She saw him now, even if she didn’t back then – and was an irreplaceable friend. He knew he loved her, and now he let himself really feel it. 

Then one more image emerged in front of them both. Sephiroth kissing Cloud at the Northern Cave. He focused on that now, the way he felt then. It was needy and possessive, and he had felt whole. And the illusion before that, he remembered that too. 

“This is…the piece of me that belongs to him,” Cloud said to Tifa. “Or at least, that’s what I thought at the time.” He watched the way Sephiroth surrounded him, held his head to him – and the complete abandon they both obviously felt. 

“Oh, Cloud,” Tifa said, unsure of what else to say at first. And then, “And what about now?” She took his hand reassuringly, and twined their fingers together. He squeezed her hand, comforted, as he thought it through with his newfound sense of self. 

“But…it’s just a compulsion, the Reunion. An alien compulsion to come together. Mixed up with my feelings for a Sephiroth that doesn’t exist anymore. And we never really knew each other in the first place. So, it was never more than an infatuation. I know what real love is – and it’s not that. And, because all it really is is a compulsion, I know I can ignore it. People resist doing the wrong thing every day.” 

The image disappeared. Dispelled by his realization. 

Tifa squeezed his hand. “That’s…perfect Cloud.” 

He turned to her and hugged her then. Tight. Knowing she would hug him back. Placing a hand to her head. 

~

Cloud opened his eyes, and saw blue sky. Heard the crash of waves close by, felt the gusty breeze on his skin, and smelled the salty air of the sea. Then Zack appeared in his vision – still so handsome – full of relief. Cloud smiled. He got up slowly and Zack moved to the side to give him some room as he placed a hand to his back. 

When he looked at Zack again, he got excited butterflies in his stomach. Like when he was sixteen with his giant crush on him. Because he got those memories back, too. All his him as a cadet. 

He leaned in kissed Zack lovingly, and said, low, “I remember you. I remember everything, now. I know how amazing I always knew you were.”

Zack looked overwhelmed – and exceedingly flattered, his cheeks getting pink. “That’s a hell of a ‘hello’. You really remember…everything?”

Cloud nodded. “I remember everything about you now. The way you were so kind to everyone. And helped everyone that needed it. And talked about your girlfriend.” They both smiled. “And the way that - whenever you smiled or joked around with me, I knew I liked you. I’m not sure if you know this, but…I had a tremendous crush on you that whole time.” 

Zack was smiling at him with the softest expression. “No, I didn’t know that,” he said. “But I’m glad you told me.”

“So really,” Cloud went on, “I love you even more than I thought I did.” 

Zack kissed him, and it was warm and soft and perfect. Then they looked at each other, and Cloud started to take in his surroundings more. He heard assorted disgruntled noises and laughing from their friends. If they were reacting to them, Cloud was beyond caring about it, and kissed him again. 

Then Aerith was in his arms, hugging him tight. “Welcome back,” she said, warm and relieved. 

“I was gone?” Cloud asked.

“It’s been over a week since you were carried away by the Lifestream,” she said. She turned and pointed up into the sky. 

Meteor stood out stark and red against the gentle blue. 

Cloud’s heart dropped. “How long do we have?”

“Not long. A few days. How do you feel?”

Cloud assessed himself. “Good. I’m ready to fight. And…I’m me,” he said meaningfully. 

Aerith’s face bloomed into a beautiful smile. “Yes. I heard. And I see.” She cradled his cheek with her hand. 

“I remember you, from when I was floating.” 

“I was there with you while you drifted. I’m sorry that I couldn’t bring you out. I…can’t go into the Lifestream yet.”

“Tifa did. She was there.”

“Yes, she came back here to visit you. They all did.”

He looked around for Tifa, who was walking to the Shinra airship with the rest of them. But she turned around, back to him, saw that he was looking her way, and waved. He waved back, smiling. She smiled back and turned around with a bounce in her step. 

“She helped me to find myself,” he finished. “And she’s a part of me. And so are the two of you.” And so are his friends, and the people he’s met, and…everyone. 

Aerith kissed him, and hugged him tightly again. 

“There’s more,” Zack said to him, next to them. “Shinra’s trying to stop Meteor with Huge Materia. We snagged two of the four of them that we know about so far.”

“They can’t use materia like that. It’s wasting the planet’s energy, and it need all it can.”

“Right,” Aerith said. 

“And…when Meteor was called,” Zack continued, “the ancient Weapon woke up, and it’s causing havoc everywhere. We actually just fought it off from destroying this town.” 

Come to think of it, he didn’t recognize his surroundings at all. “Where are we?”

“Mideel.” 

“Ah. Never been here. It’s nice. And…we have Rufus’ airship?!”

Zack smiled wide, excitement in his eyes. “Sure do!”

~

When Cloud boarded the Highwind, he was bombarded with greetings from his friends. He was glad to see them. And then, when he went below deck, someone he hasn’t seen in a long time caught his eye. “Kunsel?!” 

Zack sidled up next to Cloud and leaned on his shoulder. “You said you remembered everything, but I wanted to make sure you remember this guy.” 

“Y…yeah, I remember,” he said, still looking at him, not knowing what to say. 

Kunsel smiled, knocked him solidly on the arm, “So, you’ve been out there saving all our dumb asses, huh? God knows we’ve been fucking it up.…Good to see you. And that you’re alright.”

He’s never talked to him this way, all full of respect. Well, he was a cadet back then. And a lots happened since. Cloud smiled, “Good to see you, too,” and meant it, and clasped his arm to shake. 

“And I saved your puppy from Shinra’s clutches,” he said, indicating Zack with a nod of his head, “so maybe I can start to make it up to you for all of us.”

“C’mon,” Zack complained at the nickname. 

Cloud hadn’t heard it in so long. He laughed hard. Zack’s face fell cutely, making them both laugh again. “You’re here now, that’s what matters,” he told Kunsel. 

The three caught up for a few minutes, until Cloud noticed Roche leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He left the two old friends to their own devices and walked over to him. He leaned against the wall next to him and mirrored his stance. “Hey,” he said. 

“Yo. Surprised to see me?” Roche asked spiritedly, turning to his head to him. 

“Yes and no.”

Roche laughed. 

“How’d you wind up here?”

“Your man didn’t fill you in yet?” he teased. Cloud shook his head no. “I helped in the grand escape. With Meteor over our heads - when Fair said that you were missing, I knew I had to do something. 

“Thank you,” Cloud told him. “Shit. I don’t even know what happened yet. But if you freed him, then thank you.”

Roche nodded, and smiled a little. “Things weren’t good for me there anyway.” Then he paused and said, “I remembered him after our fight near Gongaga. I didn’t recognize him at first. Zack Fair, SOLDIER, First Class. I idolized him as a cadet.”

“Join the club,” Cloud said, and Roche laughed hard at that. “We all had big dreams then.”

“Yeah. And look how that turned out.”

“Totally agree. I just wanted to be a big shot, and it all blew up in our faces.”

Roche shoulder checked him. “You are a big shot, you idiot,” he laughed. “Everyone’s shitting bricks right now, hoping you know what the hell to do.”

Cloud felt the weight of his words. Everyone was depending on him? He’s just winging this. Groping through the dark for answers because there’s no other choice. 

“Hey, don’t freak out. Forget I said anything,” Roche said in reaction to Cloud. “Think of it this way then. We’re all here to help you out.” 

Cloud nodded, taking the suggestion readily. “Then, thanks for being here.”

When he parted from Roche, Cid went up to him and said they would be taking off, and Cloud agreed. He joined him for takeoff in the cockpit. 

When they were level, he found Aerith, Zack, Kunsel and Tifa outside the Operations room, all together in a circle, laughing. He joined in for a while, and before too long, it felt almost…natural. Next, Roche joined in, too. 

When the group broke up, Aerith got close to Cloud’s ear and said, “Did you notice the way Tifa and Kunsel were getting flirty back there?” Cloud hadn’t, and gave a nod no. Aerith pulled Zack into their little huddle too, and asked him. 

“Yeah, I saw that,” he confirmed laughing. “Like the way he tapped her shoulder when he was agreeing with her, and then she leaned into his space a little.”

“And then she put her hand on his arm, and he smiled all goofy,” she mimicked the movement with Cloud’s arm, and Cloud smiled in a way he thought was goofy, making the other two laugh. 

Cloud usually felt like the odd one out when it came to casual conversation. But, never with them. He didn’t feel left out of the group that just broke up either. It was…really nice. 

~

Cloud got everyone together into the Operations room, and told them exactly who he was with gentle confidence. Aerith could see the peace he made with himself in it, and she nearly cried from the strength of it. The real Cloud was here in front of them all for the first time. 

Then he talked about what was left to be done. That they had to stop Shinra’s misguided efforts. And then, stop Sephiroth himself. Aerith could see how it bolstered them all. This past week has been so hard on all of them. So chaotic. So many unknowns. But now, they looked back at him with resolve. 

~

When they were alone that night on the airship, Cloud moving into the room Zack and Aerith already chose on the Highwind, they were silent for some time. It’s been a long time since they were all together like this. Only a week in truth, but it felt more like a year. 

Cloud spoke first. Talked about exactly what happened with Tifa in the Lifestream – and once again Aerith could see the profound effect it had on him. Talked about how Sephiroth had a complete hold of him at the Crater, how he gave in, how Sephiroth had tried to tempt him to stay, and that now he knows he can repel it all. 

Then he - more hesitantly - talked about how intimate it had been. The illusion he was put under. Aerith and Zack were immediately, overwhelmingly, concerned. They shared worried looks and held onto him in support. Zack said he had known something was really off about that illusion. That he didn’t say more when it happened because everything was too chaotic for him press it and there was no time. The way that Cloud talked about it, though, as if it was firmly behind him, eased their minds some - some. 

Then he talked about the kiss they shared. Zack jumped up a few moments later and punched the wall hard with a yell, startling the other two. An indentation was left in the aluminum, and Zack shook out his hand. It was a wall internal to the ship so it was likely ok for him to do that, all things considered – Aerith let it go. 

Cloud visibly steeled himself a little, and when Zack looked back at him, he took that in through his angry haze and started to look guilty. 

“Sorry,” Zack apologized. 

Cloud shook his head side to side to say he shouldn’t worry about it. 

“I’m angry because…there was nothing I could do to protect you, even though I was there. That you’ve been through so much and…” A few tears slid down his cheeks in his frustration, and Cloud stood up and went over to him, grabbed his arm gently. He smiled sadly and said, “You’ve done…so much for me, Zack. You both have. You haven’t let me down. Not at all.” Zack closed his eyes hard, and eventually nodded. 

At length, when they calmed down, Cloud rubbing his arm with concern in his eyes, they both sat down again. 

Aerith thought it would take a long time for Cloud to really unpack all of what happened. And she didn’t want to press him on it, in case he wasn’t ready to think on it too deeply. “Are you alright?” Aerith asked instead. 

“Yeah I…it didn’t come from any real feelings. I’m more worried about how you think of me now. It feels…like I betrayed you both,” he finished softly. 

Aerith’s face crumpled. “What we think of you? Sweetie...I think you’re strong, and brave, and I love you so much, Cloud,” and she hugged him, head in his chest. 

“You thought we would blame you? You didn’t have a choice,” Zack whispered. 

“It felt like I did. That’s the worst of it. But, when I remind myself of how I love you, I can tell how false it really is. So you see – you really did help me.” 

Zack leaned in slowly, and kissed him. “Then we’ll just have to keep reminding you.” He kissed him again. “Over and over.” 

Cloud smiled at him, and at Aerith, and seemed to let their love wash over him. Then said to Zack, changing the subject, “Ok, your turn. What the hell happened to you? You got captured?” 

Zack let out a long breath. “I did. Was knocked out from the mako-wind. But first, I need to tell you both, on the way out to the Highwind - I killed Hojo.” Both Cloud and Aerith gasped harshly, and Zack steeled himself to go on. “He was just running. Wasn’t even a threat at the time.” An edge of guilt came into his face. “He’s done so much to us. And he would do it again in a heartbeat. When I saw the chance in front of me, I lost it. I don’t know if it was right or wrong. Haven’t even really had the chance to think about it again until now.”

Now Cloud and Aerith were comforting Zack. “If you’re waiting for me to say you did the wrong thing, it’s not gunna happen,” Cloud said, and Zack looked at him, a little uncertain. “It was a personal grudge, yeah, but so what? He made it personal for so many of us. I might have done the same.”

“I don’t think you would have,” Zack said softly. Cloud laughed, like he thought maybe Zack was right now that he said it. Yeah, maybe he couldn’t have. “But thank you.” 

“You won’t see me blaming you either,” Aerith said, resolute. “Please, be kind to yourself.” But Aerith could see it in his eyes that he did blame himself. She hoped fervently that time, and support, could heal his wound as well. 

“Thanks guys.” 

When it seemed Cloud thought Zack had the closure he was looking for for now, he asked, “What happened next, Zack?”

“I woke up in Scarlet’s room. Uhhh…it’s actually really awkward,” Zack said, and he told them. Aerith heard this bit from Zack already, and the sadness she felt for his sake showed as he talked. Zack seemed worried about Cloud’s reaction to the fact that he had to play into her game a little bit. 

But Cloud said he had no room to judge on something like that. He meant it as a joke, but the mood was too heavy for it to have its intended effect. Next, Cloud told him that he kept himself safe, and was trying to keep everyone else safe, and that was the important thing and truly admirable. Aerith had told Zack something similar when it had been the two of them, and she agreed wholeheartedly with Cloud now. Zack was touched at their reaction. 

Cloud showed concern for Roche when he heard about how he felt he had to ‘get by’ by aligning himself with Scarlet the way he did, and Aerith knew that Zack and Kunsel did too – already started talking to him about what things were like for him. And Zack revealed to Cloud that it had to do with the way that Shinra – backed into a corner more and more the way they were – were expending troopers and SOLDIERs like they were nothing, and Roche got the feeling that he should make himself as valuable as possible. But any more detail than that, Cloud should talk to Roche himself. Cloud nodded. 

She noticed the way Cloud had approached the other SOLDIER earlier, and the way they seemed to get along. Aerith thought it was great. They were the same age, went through some of the same things, and their personalities appeared to complement each other. Maybe Cloud found a new friend – she hoped. 

The rest of the story of their escape was plain-old exciting. She could see Cloud getting into it, and Zack fed off of his enthusiasm, getting more involved in the story-telling as he went. 

Tifa woke up and the executions were on for that morning. Kunsel walked Zack to Scarlet’s room – she needed a final answer from him. She made her slimy pitch again to Zack as Kunsel feigned leaving, then hit her in the back of the head, knocking her out. He freed Zack, and he grabbed his phone on the way out, unlocking it from Scarlet’s fingerprint in a satisfying turnabout. 

The codes to the gas chamber Kunsel retrieved weren’t working – and Tifa was already inside. They all had to fall back to the Highwind - knowing Cid already turned the crew to their side. They boarded and regrouped to figure out how to get to Tifa. As an added source of mayhem, Weapon approached Junon, and the main gun was fired. Weapon fired back. 

Tifa solved the problem for them, to Zack’s pride. She was climbing down the outside of the building. They saw her run down the length of the gun, Scarlet not far behind and looking exceedingly enraged. They got in close and Tifa jumped to the rope they let down for her – but not before giving Scarlet a beautiful punch to the face, making Zack cheer for her. He pulled her in as she climbed the rope and they were so happy to see each other.

It wasn’t until she climbed aboard that he could see her punch was in answer to a slap Scarlet gave her – her cheek pink.

The three were laughing by the end of the story, and it was on that note that they called it a night. Aerith and Zack slept on either side of Cloud, holding onto each other tight. 

~

Their private time was short while they gathered the remaining Huge Materia, and brought it to Cosmo Canyon for safekeeping. 

But once it was done, they settled down for the night on the Highwind, and Cloud was glad to be with them. They’ve talked through their biggest troubles by now, but it still felt like there was a shift between them. Was it just Cloud’s guilt making him feel that way, or did something fundamental change because of everything that happened? 

When Cloud voiced his worries to them, Aerith said she thought they needed time to heal, and that they should lean on each other now more than ever. That made sense to Cloud, and he examined his uneasy feeling more closely. 

“I need…a reminder of how we belong to each other,” Cloud told them both. “I think that will help me keep what happened far away from me.” 

Zack nodded seriously, and kissed him possessively but not demandingly. It felt like he was saying ‘Mine’, with his mouth and hands, and Cloud slowly relaxed into it. Glad to be ‘taken’, and glad to claim him. 

When they parted, Aerith did the same. They kissed each other like they would be together forever. He thought, if she secretly held doubts about him, that there was no way she could be kissing him this way – so open and loving. That neither of them could kiss him this way without meaning it. And it healed his heart some more. 

And so they all continued, on and on into the night.


	15. The Last Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud, Zack, and Aerith spend the last day before the final confrontation together. There will be dancing, and cross-dressing, and a ton of smut.

This was it. They would bring Aerith to the Ruins, and kill Sephiroth tomorrow. 

If anyone even glanced at the sky they could see how Meteor was an imposing, gigantic, flaming ball – turning the entire sky purple. 

They’ve prepared as much as they can. 

For their last day, Cloud send everyone off to spend it how they wanted to. Cloud, Aerith, and Zack easily decided that the three of them would stay together. First, they visited Aerith’s mom in Midgar. She hasn’t seen her since in all this time. And because Marlene was with her, that’s where Barret went too. Tifa stopped in to visit her as well for a time, Kunsel with her. The trio would catch up with Tifa and Kunsel again later. 

And her mom did indeed freak out – just as Aerith predicted back in Gongaga– first when she saw the three of them together in any capacity, and again when she got the idea of their relationship. She calmed down after a while and said they were welcome to stay. Aerith talked to her about her birth parents and they reminisced about old times while Cloud and Zack went to the garden. 

Cloud missed this garden. It wasn’t as healthy as it was when Aerith was taking care of it, and the dust from the plate-fall must not have helped, but it brought Cloud some peace still. He kept catching Zack giving him fond looks – whenever than peacefulness came over him. Zack put his head in his lap after a while, and Cloud ran his fingers through his hair. 

When they came back inside, Aerith was telling her mom all that they had been up to, and what they were about to do. It was difficult for her mom to hear, and Cloud knew that it was out of love that she wanted Aerith to be safe. To not have to do such dangerous things. Cloud and Zack could relate – their own respective parents had to let them go long ago. She was still pretty frosty when it came to Cloud and Zack, but they talked too. And it got easier through dinner.

Aerith and her mom cooked dinner together while Cloud and Zack fixed some things around the house. It smelled really good and it piqued Cloud’s interest so much that he went to the kitchen for some water just to get a look. And they were making tacos.

“Surprise!” Aerith said. “I hope you like it!” 

Cloud was overcome with her thoughtfulness. “Aerith…I…thank you. I know I will.” He could feel his cheeks heat up. He hugged her and kissed her cheek. Cloud glanced at Elmyra after he pulled away, expecting to see a reprimanding expression, but it was surprisingly warm. “Thank you,” he told her, too. Elmyra nodded, and the warmth coming from her grew. 

Earlier, they told Elmyra that she needed to leave Midgar with Marlene. And so, after dinner the entire house was empty again, Barret starting the two on their way. Cloud, Zack, and Aerith left to meet their friends at Wall Market. One last chance to be themselves before everything changed tomorrow. And, even if they do succeed, things will be so different. 

It was a little manic at Wall Market, with Meteor looming as it did above them all as a constant reminder. The people were looking for an escape from reality now more than ever before. Talking loudly, drinking, and laughing in the streets.

The three met Tifa and Kunsel, then Roche who had visited his grandmother up on the plate, outside the dance club. The neon signs were flashing brightly and he could hear the driving beats of the music from outside. 

Cloud has never been to a dance club - neither has Tifa. It was so loud and crowded when they entered that Cloud wasn’t sure he would like it after all. Then he cut that line of thinking off. Did he become an old man even before he got a chance to act his age? He wanted to come here. Because – despite the intense mood that hit Wall Market – it would give him an idea of what might have been if things went ‘the way they were supposed to’. If things didn’t happen the way the way they did in Nibelheim. If there was no Jenova to worry about. He thought for a moment about how he used to talk to Zack about the ‘what ifs’, and the comfort it gave them then. 

Zack put a hard drink in front of him and smiled beautifully at him, lifting his mood. They stayed near the bar at first, then Aerith and Tifa started dancing. Cloud watched them and smiled without realizing it at their enjoyment, and the freedom of their movements. The music was fast, getting his heart pumping as he paid attention to the sound of it now. 

The rest joined in soon after, Zack pulling him along. Zack danced close to him, not giving him the chance to stand there awkwardly, and Cloud caught on to the movements before long. Then Aerith was dancing with him, Tifa and Kunsel now together. Cloud didn’t see Roche for a moment, until he noticed him dance close with a woman he seemed to know, smiling at her. Or maybe that was just Roche - making the right moves. 

He looked back at Aerith and she pressed closer to him with a smile. Zack moved in behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist. And Cloud was struck again with how great they looked together. 

Kunsel got them more drinks and Tifa turned Cloud around to claim him as a dance partner. When Kunsel gave him a drink he made way for him to dance with Tifa again. He took a few sips, watching Aerith whisper to Zack as they danced together. Uh oh, he thought playfully. Those two were conspiring something. 

Cloud was proven right when they surrounded Cloud, Aerith in front of him and Zack behind, both flush against him. Cloud tried to keep up with them but was constantly distracted by their closeness. 

Aerith got drinks next, and Cloud turned to Zack and clung against him. When he took a look around he saw they weren’t the only ones getting closer and closer as the night went on. The feel of the place was changing from energetic fun to something more charged. Some in the crowd were kissing now as they danced. It was giving Cloud ideas and he looked at Zack, which made those ideas run wild. 

It was then that someone stood beside them, and asked, confidently and politely, “May I cut in?”

They both turned their heads and Andrea Rodea stood there with his hand out to Cloud. Andrea looked to Zack and nodded to him, and Zack gave a surprised nod back - then back to Cloud, and said, “A friendly dance.” 

Cloud panicked for a moment with that old feeling of unsurely, until he looked at the situation more calmly. He and Andrea helped each other out that time. He got Tifa back. And it led to the downfall of the Don, which all of Wall Market has been benefiting from since. Andrea, likely more than most. He could see now some measure of gratefulness on Andrea’s face, and a genuine interest in seeing him again.

Cloud was intrigued, and he glanced at Zack to see what he thought of it. He looked bemused, and nodded that it was fine with him. Cloud turned back to Andrea, and took his hand. Andrea was pleased, and guided him closer – and led him in a fast-paced dance that Cloud found he could follow. There were murmurs in the crowd. It was a fun dance, and Cloud was surprised to find he was having fun doing it. Andrea was having a good time with it, too. He heard some wolf-whistles, and when he had the chance to look that way he saw it was Aerith and Zack, smiling at him, Zack’s arms wrapped around Aerith’s waist from behind. 

More people were looking now, and Cloud was getting uncomfortable. Andrea gave a nonverbal acknowledgement, an understanding, and they ended the display a few moments later, next dancing in a more club-like way which made them blend in again. 

“You’ve still got it, Cloud,” he commented. 

Cloud shrugged it off. “That was fun.” 

Andrea smiled at him. “We’ll have to do it again sometime. I won’t try your boyfriend’s patience much further...But, I wondered about what happened to you. The things that have been said about you in the news…”

“A lot’s happened.”

“And now with Metor…”

“Things aren’t done happening yet.”

Andrea smiled at him. “You are involved, then.”

Cloud nodded. 

“Then, my heartfelt good-luck to you. Let me know if there’s anything you need.”

“Thank you. But I think we’re as prepared as we can be.” Cloud wanted to offer advice on how they could survive tomorrow. But there’s nothing. ‘Stay inside’, won’t cut it. Not by far. “It will be difficult, after,” he offered instead. 

Andrea understood his meaning and looked at him seriously, and nodded. “Then, let’s all enjoy tonight. Take care, Cloud,” he said, kissed his cheek, and stepped away. 

“Take care,” Cloud replied, and meant it.

Andrea smiled a little and walked away toward a man Cloud thought was his date. 

Zack and Aerith bounded over to him immediately, all excited energy. “Oh my god, it’s true! You know Andrea Rodea, and you danced with him!” Zack burst out. Cloud was surprised at how star struck Zack was. 

“You were amazing!” Aerith added.

Zack started dancing with Cloud again, taking the lead now in Andrea’s place. It wasn’t long before he wanted to kiss Zack again, having been interrupted before, so he did. Then he invited Aerith between them, and they all enjoyed the dance - and he kissed her, too. 

“Ok, there’s no topping that. Let’s go back to the hotel,” Zack said about Cloud dancing with Andrea. Cloud laughed. Yeah, he was ready to go. This has been fun, but he wanted to spend time with them now. He agreed. 

Tifa and Kunsel were close on the dancefloor. When Aerith let them know they were going, the two said they would go, too. Cloud noticed Roche again, now dancing tightly against a guy. As Cloud walked toward him, the guy turned around and Roche kissed him. Cloud gave it a few moments, then he tapped his shoulder and let him know they were going. The guy said he hoped he would stay. Roche then told Cloud he would stay and winked at him meaningfully. 

~

They had a hotel suite. Nothing fancy, but it was a good size. Two rooms joined by a small living room. And that’s where they were all enjoying each-other’s company now. They were on two couches opposite each other, Tifa and Kunsel on one and the three on the other, still feeling good from the music and dancing and drinking. They put on the radio to keep the mood going. 

They reminisced about the past, and teased each other, and made jokes. And they laughed a lot and got comfortable, snuggling up against each other – Aerith leaning into Cloud, and Tifa against Kunsel. Zack pulled Cloud against him next, bringing Aerith with him, making Cloud laugh. The three got into a play fight – tapping and blocking each other, that ended in tickles. 

A similar fight broke out on the other couch – until Kunsel kissed Tifa, and she kissed back, cheeks rapidly turning pink. Cloud wondered if that was her usual reaction or if it was because they had an audience. Aerith looked to Cloud and Zack with a perked eyebrow, that said, ‘Isn’t that interesting?’ 

Zack smirked over Cloud’s shoulder and leant closer to Aerith, giving her a challenging look. They heard Tifa make a noise, making the three laugh, and when they turned, Kunsel was leaning into her and Tifa had her arms wrapped around his neck. Zack waggled his eyebrow now, and Aerith smiled, leaned into Zack the rest of the way, pressing to Cloud, and kissed him. 

Cloud could hear the sounds of their kissing close to his ear, making him hug Aerith’s waist, then kiss her himself. 

After a few moments, Zack guided Cloud’s head to the side by the chin and they met for a kiss over Cloud’s shoulder. 

~

Cloud, Zack, and Aerith were in their own room now – laughing their asses off. Their impromptu game of sexy chicken against the occupants of the other couch didn’t last very long. It had been ended by Kunsel when Zack unbuckled Cloud’s belt (Zack assuring Cloud beforehand that he wasn’t going to take it any further!). 

~

Aerith made some final adjustments for Cloud. She was already dressed in full SOLDIER uniform herself. Cloud had seen her in the top before, and now her chest was bound too. She had on his shoulderpads and harness – and she had to make a new notch for it to fit snuggly to her waist. Cloud had given his ok without hesitation. He knew she had on his black boxer briefs as well. The pants and boots rounded out the uniform. Her hair was tied back in a neat bun at the base of her neck. He had kissed her immediately when he first saw her – when she entered the bathroom to help him. 

Cloud was already in the dress two of them had picked out together. He was doing this for a lot of reasons, he thought. For solidarity with Aerith, who had confessed to them how she needed to know more about herself. That dressing like a man like this would help her do that. And for Zack, who obvious had a fascination about it when it came to both Cloud and Aerith. Zack had no idea what they were up to right now. It was a surprise they came up with together. Cloud was glad for once to be in on a little conspiracy. It seems to usually be the case that Aerith and Zack were the ones making fun little plans. 

Another reason was that, this was the last night. Their last chance before everything ended tomorrow – one way or the other. Cloud thought, given more time, he might have come around to this kind of play anyway. It’s just…been accelerated. 

Finally, he has his own curiosity about it. Now that no one is forcing him into it – he’s free to make of it what he will. He thinks it’s just a fun thing to try that he might actually like once he was in the moment – with the people that love him. He didn’t have the kinds of deep questions about himself that Aerith had.

Anyway, Aerith was straightening the dress and adding to the light makeup. Just adding some nuance – she said. The dress was black, short, with lace at the bottom. Straps at the top, with a deep neckline. Tight at the top and waist, over his natural chest, and flowing out at the skirt. He wore black heels, higher than he originally wanted, but Aerith convinced him. 

Aerith also asked that he wear black lace panties as well. And he thought not, at first. They wound up once again he was convinced though, and he was wearing them now. 

“There,” she said, with the last stroke of the brush. “Perfect.” She took him in with her eyes, and bit her lip. Then she kissed him, stroking his side, and down his leg. “Damn,” she said. 

They left the bathroom before they got too carried away by themselves, and got comfortable on the edge of the bed. Zack would be back in a minute from getting some wine for them. Aerith sat with her legs squarely apart, leaning back on her hands. Cloud found he didn’t know how to sit. If he sat normally, similar to how Aerith was now, then Zack would be getting a view of his underwear first thing. He thought of crossing his legs but that didn’t feel natural. He settled for kicking his feet out, and crossing at the ankles, leaning back a bit himself. 

“Won’t Zack be surprised,” Aerith said in anticipation. 

“If Kunsel’s with him, I would just die…”

“Zack would not bring Kunsel back with him right now. He knows what time it is,” Aerith assumed him with a smirk. “And one thing I know about him is that he will not compromise sexy time.” 

Cloud laughed at how true that was, and felt more confident in their privacy. 

The door started opening, and Cloud switched to crossing his legs at the last second after all. Zack came in with the bottle of wine and stopped dead when he looked at Cloud and Aerith. He slammed the door shut hard without looking at it, eyes wide. 

“Do you like your surprise?” Aerith asked, smile in her voice. 

Zack tried to talk but couldn’t. 

“You’re speechless,” she went on, smiling wide. “Then come over here and show us what you think.” 

Zack’s face was getting red, and he looked like he might have an aneurism as he looked at them. Cloud watched as Zack’s eyes raked over each of them. He paid special attention to Cloud’s upper thighs, and Cloud changed his angle to show more of his thigh in unconscious response. Zack made a strangled noise in his throat that set Cloud on fire. It seemed he couldn’t move either. Aerith stood up, and came over to him instead. She took the bottle of wine from him and set it aside on the nearby dresser. She pulled him into a kiss by his harness strap, and he returned it excitedly. 

He felt her up with a heavy hand, and she did the same. Cloud came over too, encouraged by how things were doing with the two of them. Cloud went behind him, pressed up close. The heels of his shoes made him a taller than normal. He felt his back and sides as Aerith continued to kiss him. 

At length Zack turned around looked at him up close. The want in Zack’s eyes was even more intense than Cloud had expected. Spurred on, he leaned on Zack’s chest and looked up at him. Slid his hands up his chest to neck, behind his head. 

Zack caught up all at once, and kissed him, hands grasping his waist, pushing up his torso, to his back and behind is head. Zack was breathing hard through the kiss. Cloud pushed his tongue into his mouth, and wrapped a leg high around his waist - content to overwhelm him. Zack groaned deep, and grabbed his ass, massaging it now as they continued to kiss. Zack turned them and stepped back into the wall and pulled Cloud with him, making their bodies crash together hard when they got there. Cloud moaned. 

Aerith wrapped her arms around Cloud then, from behind. Sucked the juncture of his neck and shoulder and grabbed at his chest. Cloud turned around, and their mouths crashed into a kiss. He wrapped his leg around Aerith the same way had had done to Zack and she ground herself against him, making them both groan. Make that all three – Zack was watching them avidly, keeping Cloud flush against him. Cloud used his lean against Zack to go lower – more aligned with Aerith. 

Zack felt him with his hand over the skirt. Then his hand traveled along his naked thigh, and up again, against his skin (He could tell the way Zack was trying to take his time, but struggling to do so) – under the skirt, grazing the panties. “Oh my god Cloud,” he said on a breath. Traced the line of it, then over the material covering his ass. Cloud was still kissing Aerith, but they both laughed, pleased at Zack’s reaction. 

Zack’s hand traveled forward to the front, grazed over the side of Cloud’s hard dick, making Cloud breathe faster. Aerith was still grinding into him. Cloud roved his hands over her, not as he normally did, but with a heaviness and familiarity he thought to use - from the thought of being intimate with a man. Aerith responded to it, moaned rough, and pulled at Cloud’s leg around her and felt him up, making Cloud smile. 

Aerith cupped his ass, then went under his skirt herself – he could see her get even more turned on as she rubbed the panties. She palmed his dick, making Cloud moan. He palmed her back, then she pulled back and smirked, and said, “Be right back. Why don’t you two go to the bed?” 

Zack spun him around. “Yes, why don’t we?” Zack said teasingly, pressing his hardness against him, and palming Cloud’s ass. Cloud pushed himself against him. “Because your grinding on my dick,” Cloud said back. 

“Oh? Can’t move?” Zack moved his other hand between them, dipped his hand slowly inside the panties, and grasped him gently, pumped him a few times slowly, and Cloud was matching the rhythm of it. Cloud thrust his hand into Zack’s pants. “Can you?” Cloud countered. Zack smiled. They kept up with this tantalizing stalemate until Aerith came back from the bathroom and walked over to them.

“Like it here then?” Aerith asked, amused. “That’s fine.” Cloud turned back around to her. She pressed herself against him, and he could feel her strapon dick press against him. “Why don’t we pick up where we left off then?”

Cloud smirked at her and stroked her through her pants. He undid the pants, and stroked her again. Then he pulled her out of her boxer briefs, and pumped, and stroked the head as Aerith watched and gasped. Then Cloud knelt down to the ground, and Aerith and Zack moaned, and he slid his mouth over it slowly. Gave it his full attention. He held her waist with one hand and used the other to pump her as he used his mouth. 

Zack knelt down behind him, and started rubbing his dick with one hand, and then his hole with a slick finger, making Cloud groan and spread his legs wider. Aerith carded her fingers through his hair. Zack pushed his finger inside him, stretched him, teased his spot – Zack knew him so well now. He knew how to drive him wild like this. 

“Somebody take me,” Cloud said when he couldn’t stand it anymore.

Zack and Aerith looked at each other, deciding between them how things would go. “Actually, Zack,” Aerith said, breathless, “I’ve got my eye on you right now.” Zack groaned, “Oh my god yes,” Zack said to her. And then to Cloud, “Let’s get you on that bed, so I can fuck you senseless.” Cloud groaned loud. How did things like that never sound silly coming from Zack? Zack made it sound like a promise. 

They got themselves over to the bed, and Zack splayed himself over Cloud, toppling him down more gently than normal, with an arm behind his back. Cloud clung to him with his arms and legs, and when Zack was fully on top of him, he felt along his leg, up his thigh, and pushed his skirt up. Then Zack moved away a little so that he could see the underwear for the first time, and Cloud moved his leg out of the way to give him a better view. He made such a face of longing that Cloud’s throat got tight. 

Knowing that Zack was about to just go for it, Cloud preempted him by sitting up and tugging his pants open. Aerith took off Zack’s shirt. “You both certainly know how to make a guy feel special,” Zack said to them with a smile. He took off his pants and underwear all the way, and turned to Aerith. He rubbed her up and down, and took off her pants, too, pulling on the belts with more force than necessary, the jarring through her body turning her on. Then he took off her underwear, and stroked her. 

She got behind him next, teased him by rubbing herself against his ass, like she’d seen Zack do so many times to Cloud. Zack closed his eyes. Then she let him go and turned his head, that had lolled to the side a bit, back to Cloud, as if to say, ‘Go get ‘em!’

And then Zack focused on Cloud, sending a thrill through him. He sat and leaned forward, mouthed at Cloud’s dick through the underwear, kissed along his thighs, then took them off slowly. He bent down again, and used his mouth on his dick. 

Zack kissed higher and higher up his leg, and sucked on his skin. Grazed his fingers gently over his hole. Then, said, “Hey, can I try something?”

“What?”

Zack bit his lip. “I wanna lick you.” 

At first Cloud didn’t know why he was asking to suck him. They’ve done that plenty of times. Then he got it. “Oh…I...,” he started. 

“I could try, and you can see if you want to keep going…” he offered. 

“Yeah,” Cloud said. 

Zack smiled at him, then bent his head and sucked on his thigh again. Then spread him gently and licked, long and slow, against his hole, making Cloud gasp. Then he picked him up a bit at the same time and did it again. Pushed his tongue gently against his rim, and wriggled his tongue. Cloud moaned loudly, as Zack kept going – poking his tongue against him, then licking again, more firmly. “More?” Zack asked?

“More.”

“Turn around, it’ll be even better,” he urged. Cloud turned around and got on his hands and knees with anticipation. Zack spread him wider this time, and had more freedom to lick and wriggle his tongue. He could feel himself opening and his tongue was getting deeper all the time. Then Zack clamped his mouth to him and sucked, and Cloud keened. 

Aerith knelt in front of Cloud then and kissed him hotly. Then she winked and went underneath him in a 69. She grasped his dick and guided it into her warm mouth. Cloud bent his head to her, and licked and sucked her, too. Zack kept going all the while. Sucking and licking and probing – he was so open. When he was done, Zack was gone for minute, and Cloud and Aerith kept going. Then Zack’s finger replaced his tongue and went right for his prostate, making him cry out. 

Now, Cloud was already ready for him before. At this point he had to stop himself from begging for it. “Zack,” he said. 

Zack smiled, understanding what Cloud needed from his tone, and loving it. He moved up and flipped Cloud to his back, and Cloud wrapped his legs around him again as he pushed inside of him. “Cloud,” he said lovingly. Zack slipped his hand under the dress top and rubbed his chest, pinched is nipple. Then he sucked hard on his neck, and Cloud put his head to side to make it easier, and pushed back against his thrusts. 

Aerith got behind Zack, and he leaned forward more and spread his legs out to make it easier for Aerith. Zack stroked Cloud as he stay still for Aerith to prepare him. Cloud watched the emotions flicker across Zack’s face. And then, her face all anticipation, she pushed into him.

Cloud grabbed Zack’s face and kissed him, and Zack ran his hand over his ass some more, and along his chest. Then Cloud ran his hands through his hair while Aerith touched him everywhere she could reach. 

“Aerith,” Zack said, and she moved in him. And Zack grabbed Cloud by the hip and thrust into him in turn. Cloud was moaning and Zack joined him shortly. Zack pulled the straps of his dress down and attacked the exposed skin with his mouth and hands. Cloud was panting and Zack pulled Cloud’s arms loosely up and over his head. 

“Is this alright?” Zack asked. And Cloud knew why he had to ask. 

“Yeah, I like it. Just, no more than that,” Cloud replied. Nothing he couldn’t get out of easily if he wanted to, he thought. Zack nodded, and rubbed this thumb over his wrist lovingly as he went to licking his neck. 

Cloud basked in the attention. Feeling freer than he’s ever been. Despite all he’s been through, and maybe because of it. He appreciates what he has with them and wants to enjoy every second, free of shyness. He grabbed Zack’s ass when his hands were freed and rolled his hips back against him. 

They continued on this way for a long time, never hurrying. 

Zack came first, overwhelmed by being between them, curling into Cloud while Cloud held him tightly through it. Then he kissed Cloud and moved aside. Aerith kissed Zack, leaning down. And Cloud called Aerith to him, making her redden. She nodded, and washed up quickly. Then she moved on top of him, and kissed him, and slowly entered him. 

He felt up her chest and took off her top, revealing her bound chest. They had fun with their gender reversal, Cloud wrapping a leg high around her waist, while Aerith stroked his face with the back of her hand, and Zack watched avidly. She kissed his neck and chest, sucked on his nipple and Cloud squirmed in pleasure, said her name. She ran her hand along his length and he couldn’t think well enough to play properly anymore. So he just gave in as she stroked him as they moved together. Held onto her as she built him up. Skillfully went for his spot. Soon he was gasping and she captured his wrists and he came with a cry, arching his back. She kept moving inside him, and she came too with an aching cry, repeating a deep thrust over and over without pulling out. She kissed him slowly one more time before laying on his other side. 

That was incredible. They were incredible. 

They clung to each other for a long time afterward. Gave each other languid kisses. Then cuddled cozily. 

“So, what do want to do when it’s all over?” Aerith asked Cloud, and it blindsided him. She asked him that once before, back in Costa del Sol. He didn’t know the answer then, and he’s not any closer to an answer now. “I don’t know,” he said, honestly. Then, “Will you learn more from the Cetra Ruins? Teach people how to live naturally?”

“I would like to try, yes,” she replied. 

“I should…protect people,” Cloud said. “Whatever needs doing after tomorrow. Including protecting you.” 

“Sounds good, Cloud,” she told him sincerely. “That’s perfect. And you Zack?”

“I’ll keep the monsters away, just like always,” he said easily. “And, I’m not leaving your side. Either of you.” 

Aerith’s cheeks turned pink, and she asked, “Is that a promise?” 

“It is.” 

Aerith leaned in and kissed him lovingly. “I promise, too,” she told him.

“I want to stay with you both, too,” Cloud told them. “But…”

“But you also need to be free sometimes,” Aerith finished his thought. Cloud had been extremely nervous to say so. It sounded…bad in his own ears…that he needed space, and freedom to go where he will. But the way she said it, make it sound like she accepted this about him. And he was grateful. 

“Yes.”

“None of us will be standing still,” she reasoned. “And, it will be painful to be apart sometimes. But let’s promise, if we’re apart, to always come back together.” She said. 

“I promise,” Cloud said. That, he could promise without reservation. He’ll always want to come back. 

“Me too,” Zack agreed, and kissed Cloud. 

~

They talked late into the night. And it gave Cloud the chance to tell Aerith how much stronger he was because of her, and tell Zack how much it meant to him that his light pulled him out of the haze when they were on the run - and still shines so brightly. 

But, Cloud wasn’t ready for the night to end quite yet. Couldn’t sleep if he tried anyway. He was playing with the necklace he gave her, the only one she kept around her neck tonight, tracing up Aerith’s chest, wanted to feel her – wanted to be in her. He unbound her when she gave her agreement, and traced her chest again, this time over her soft curves. Zack started to do the same with a soft smile, and Cloud licked her skin. Her neck, her breast, her nipple. Aerith’s cheeks were getting pink from their combined attention on her, mouth parted with her soft gasps. 

Cloud traced down her stomach with his hand, and under the bedsheet to graze her sex, making her moan (her strapon taken off some time ago - Cloud similarly throwing his dress aside at the same time). It was just them now, full of love and devotion for each other, no more play – Cloud and Aerith and Zack. Zack kissed her mouth and ran his hand up the length of her body, while Cloud pressed two fingers inside her. Aerith moved her hips smoothly to match his fingers – dug her hands needily into Zack’s hair as they kissed. Cloud used his thumb to rub slow circles against her clit, then moved down her body and ran his tongue over and through her folds, keeping his thumb moving. 

She moaned Cloud’s name and rolled over on top of Zack, rubbing her wet sex against his dick – making him harden fast. Cloud could see where things were going between them, and didn’t want it get there before he had a chance to put his mouth on Zack. He went behind Aerith, grazed her skin with his fingers, and asked Aerith to move up Zack’s body a little, and she sat on his chest. Cloud sat on his stomach next, licked up the length of Zack’s cock, tasting Aerith on him. 

Cloud could hear his answering groan, and his hand dig into his hair, and fingers along his scalp, making him half-hard. He teased the head, first with his tongue, and then by surrounding it with his mouth – sucking and licking, and barely grazing with his teeth, earning him a deep groan from Zack. He wrapped his hand around the rest of his length and pumped him as he sucked, before putting him fully in his mouth. Then he opened his throat, and went deeper still, taking him in fully, making them both moan. 

“I don’t know exactly what you’re doing Cloud,” Aerith said lightly and headily at the same time, “but keep doing it. Zack looks like he’s going to explode.” 

Then Cloud could hear the wet sounds of their kissing again. Cloud kept going, moved his head up and down as he sucked – and massaged his balls with his hand. Then he got up, and invited Aerith to move back down Zack’s body again.

Which she did immediately, and sunk slowly on Zack’s dick, making them both moan. Cloud lay to the side of them, and watched the way Aerith moved on top of Zack in slow rhythm – hands on his chest. She closed her eyes and scrunched her eyebrows together, tilting her head back more and more. Zack held onto her waist, and matched her movements, watching her face for as long as he could before closing his own eyes. 

They took their time together, until Zack was close. He was overwhelmed and panting hard. “You’re so good…amazing…I love you… Aerith.” Aerith kissed his cheek, and they looked at each other. 

Then she moved off of Zack and onto Cloud’s lap, who was sitting up with his legs kicked out at his point. They kissed heatedly, hands roaming, and Cloud’s aching dick was dripping for her. She gripped his length and pumped him a few times, smeared the wetness over his head, before backing up and surrounding his heard with her mouth. She licked and sucked at his precum, and Cloud groaned loudly, calling her name. She licked and bobbed up and down his length, before lining herself up to him, and sinking down. 

Cloud was out of his mind for her, and they moved together as he cupped her ass with his hands, scratched his teeth down her throat, sucked on her chest. He pushed her down excitedly and she laughed. He moved in her – was intoxicated by everything about her. The way she moved, the gasps she made, her smile, her kisses. 

He snapped into her, making her cry out over and over. And then she was coming. He loved feeling her pulse around him, and it went on and on. They kissed while Cloud moved to lay next to her, and when they parted, looked at each other lovingly, Zack moved his head by the chin and kissed him just as heavily. 

Zack moved on top of him, pushed into him, and Cloud reveled in the fullness, the completeness. Was consumed by being underneath his hard, muscled, body. And being the focus of his smiles and blissful expression. Nothing compares to this, with them. They moved slow and smooth as they kissed. Zack surrounded is face with his hands, then buried his fingers into his hair. 

It was a slow build, until Cloud spilled over, digging his fingers into Zack’s back. Zack continued on at the same steady slow pace, kissing his face in his pleasure, and then Zack came too, holding onto him tight. 

Truly exhausted now, the three fell asleep for the few hours that remained until morning.


	16. Northern Cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've reached the end, which includes an epilogue. Enjoy!

Everyone was on the Highwind in the morning as they headed to the Cetra Ruins - and after that would be North. The mood reserved.

Aerith and Zack said goodbye a distance away from everyone else - not even Cloud could hear. Tifa put a supportive hand on Cloud’s arm. He looked back at her in appreciation, and then back to the two loves of his life. They talked close, and sincere, hands grasping each other affectionately. And then they kissed in a way that would be burned in Cloud’s memory for eternity. Full of love and determination. 

The Highwind descended, and landed outside the gates of the ruins. When Aerith came over to Cloud, he hugged her tightly, arms around her shoulders, and she hugged back just as tight. Until she pulled away with an earnest expression and kissed him. It full of the love they had for each other. And a sublime resonance. Not only were they the two bookends that would stop the evil bearing down on them from two directions - but they knew each other, and understood each other so well. They shared the same heart in so many ways. 

“I love you, Aerith. You’re a force of nature,” he told her roughly and full of emotion, when their lips parted. 

“I love you, Cloud. I knew from the beginning that you were going to be the most amazing man I ever knew. And you are. You are,” she smiled. “If I’m a force of nature, then you’re the force of humanity. Telling Jenova, ‘no more.” Cloud thought that was a brilliant title, and heart bursting, he cupper her cheek and kissed her again.

“Man, that’s some movie-level shit right there,” he heard Roche comment. 

Cloud watched as Aerith and Barret departed, and Zack came up next to him, put his arm around his shoulders and squeezed. 

~

Aerith and Barret arrived at the Cetra Ruins, leaving Cloud and the others to confront Sephiroth at the same time. She felt a connection to the Lifestream as soon as she got here, soothing her nerves. This was the only time Sephiroth would be distracted enough for this to work – he would be too busy soon to stop her. They can do this. 

“Are you ready?” Barret asked as they looked on at the altar. 

Aerith looked at him, smiled, and nodded with certainty. Minute by minute, she got the feeling more and more of being one of many. She wasn’t alone in her task, as the last Cetra. No, her being the last Cetra helped her know deep in her soul that she wasn’t alone. “More than ready. And I can do it knowing that you’ve got my back. Thank you, Barret.” 

He smiled back at her, and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I’ve got you, Aerith.” And she felt the weight of his words. He would protect her with his life, which was an overwhelming thought. And she heard the deeper meaning behind his words as well. What she had asked of Barret and Cid a while ago now – that if she couldn’t do her work, he would help her join the Lifestream so that she could. “Give that Meteor hell,” he said emphatically, thrusting his arm into the air. 

She laughed, happy to feed off his enthusiasm. “You got it. Meteor is nothing against the will of the planet.” 

Then she walked evenly to the altar, knelt down, and prayed. The first thing she felt was a pulse of desperation and strength in the Lifestream. She tapped into it and projected her soul outward and into it. 

And, to her surprise, she felt her mother, Ifalna. She was not distinct, her consciousness joined with the Lifestream as it was – but it was definitely her, and she felt her love. She pushed love back at her, and their souls touched affectionately. 

Then she begged her to listen, and expressed how together they could rally the Lifestream and complete the Holy spell and save the planet. She understood. They worked together, and the energy built and built, until it was difficult to grasp or understand the boundaries of it. But it was gaining its own momentum now, and she still knew it was growing. 

She cast out a part of her mind - North. To Cloud. 

~

They started their approach to land, and Cloud took a slow steadying breath. Zack circled around to face him, and placed their foreheads together. “You’ve got this, Cloud,” Zack said in a low and sure voice.

“Yeah, I’ve got this,” he said, just as sure. And he was. They’ve all been pumping each other up for the whole ride. And before that, too, when it was just three of them getting dressed that morning. Now, when he focused on it, Cloud could feel his own strength. And his mind was clear. Unbendable. He knew what he had to do, and there was nothing that could make him doubt that now. 

“We’ve stopped ancient Weapons and command legendary Summons,” Zack stated. A last reminder of how far they’ve come, and how they had all they needed. 

“And you’ve got my back.”

“Always.” Zack kissed him, and it was full of love, and excitement and nervous energy. 

~

Sephiroth and Jenova were fused in a deeply disconcerting way. It made Cloud realize, as he fought, that the Reunion wasn’t complete by being near Sephiroth or Jenova…it was literally becoming one with them. Even the pre-Meteor Sephiroth was gone now. And their joining, and the energy they absorbed from the planet made them so incredibly strong. 

And yet they were making a dent in their fighting, little by little. It was when Sephiroth and Jenova were starting to look a little worn that Cloud felt a sharp pull on his mind. Their pull. Cloud clenched his teeth, and steeled his mind. He was not theirs. He instinctively dug deeper and fought harder, until there was nothing but the fight. The ultimate ‘dance’, as Roche would call it. Finding their weaknesses. Cutting them down. Giving everything of himself to doing so. 

And his team had him, and he had them. 

Jenova and Sephiroth were on the ground, unmoving. Was it over?

Suddenly, Cloud was hurtling into the Lifestream and it was just Sephiroth, and Cloud. Was it him, or his consciousness? He couldn’t tell. He had to fight either way, and Sephiroth was weakened. Though his look was just as cutting as if he was fresh. 

It seemed he had no more interest in tempting Cloud to his side. All he had left was his hate. Cloud summoned everything he had, everything he was, in that moment, and overwhelmed him with a flurry of attacks. At the last, Sephiroth seemed to melt into nothing. 

Then Cloud closed his eyes for a moment, and felt her. Aerith. His beautiful Aerith. “He’s gone,” he told her, projected to her. 

He felt her joy, and let himself feel some measure of his own. “It’s time. Holy is about to begin.” Cloud reached out to her, met her, and they mingled in a formless caress. 

When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked back to the world around him - Tifa was pulling him out of the Lifestream. 

~

Aerith can feel it. The entirely of the Lifesteam is poised and ready with its unified purpose. It looks for and finds the feeling of Meteor, and it’s easy, because it exudes a massive essence of Jenova and the Black Materia – which is a force of the Lifestream - combined. 

Aerith says, ‘Now’, and her mother repeats it, passes it on, and it spreads like dye in churning water. She feels the flow of the Lifesteam push upward through the Earth – toward Meteor. This is Holy. And now that it’s begun, the rest follows more and more easily. It rises and pushes, dismantles, protects. Aerith got lost in it, just one of the many working together. She gave it everything, right along with the planet. 

She woke up on her back, Barret shaking her roughly, calling her name. Barret looked extremely relieved that she was awake. “You’ve done it, Aerith. I could see it from outside, even though we’re half a world away. It looks like the impact woulda been around Midgar.” He yelled out excitedly. “The whole sky was bright with it.”

Aerith beamed, and tried to sit up. She failed – feeling weak, and lay back down. 

“It’s ok. Rest,” Barret told her. “The others are on the way here.” 

She was glad, as she closed her eyes, smiling. Feeling grateful, she reached out again, just a little. She felt her mother again, close to the surface. The two basked in each other’s presence, and then she felt another. And she realized now that the other was there all along, with her mother. “Your father,” Ifalna told her. A real tear ran down the side of her face. She felt his love – for her and her mother. 

A dream gained clarity. There no scene – it was just white, but Aerith could see both of her parents, the age that they were in the videos that she saw of them. She started to cry. “I wish I had met you,” she told him. 

“Me too, sweetheart. You’re an incredible woman. We’ll meet again, Aerith,” he promised, looking at her fondly. “But for now, live the life you want to lead. After all, you fought so hard to lead it.”

Aerith laughed. It was true. “It’s a great life. I will. And I’ll have so much to tell you.” 

She said goodbye to them both, and then went back, feeling light. 

~

Epilogue. 

It’s been three months, and Cloud still doesn’t feel like he’s won. They had celebrated their victory, yes, and they really did savor it, but that feeling was fleeting. At least for Cloud. He had hoped that time would heal the immense grief he felt, but it hasn’t. Aerith and Zack make it bearable. His other friends, too. Their light shining in. But he doesn’t feel like true joy can touch him, at least not for long. 

It’s the deaths that grieve him now. So many died during Meteorfall. A much heavier thing to carry than anything he’s carried before now. He does take solace in the lives that were spared. So many still live. But to see them rebuilding their lives here in Edge, it’s bittersweet. Maybe too bitter for him to endure day after day. 

And that’s when he rides - sometimes Zack comes with him. Killing troublesome monsters, and running packages along the hazardous routes between towns. He feels more like himself out there. 

Aerith splits her time between the Cetra Ruins and the towns, especially Edge. A good number of Avalanche members and their families have come asking to live in the ruins and help her spread what she knows - and she’s invited some of them in. The ones with still-open hearts. 

It’s when the three of them are there that Cloud feels the closest to being ‘home’. It’s a proper town now, and where he feels connected to them, and the planet, and the community all at once. 

Yet Edge still calls to him as well. To do what he can to build it up, and to see Tifa and his other friends. 

~

It was during one of those times, in the Town of the Ancients as it called now, when the three of them were together there, that they seriously started discussing what ‘home’ meant. 

“If you’re happy here, Cloud, then we should stay here,” Zack said. 

“What about everything else?” Cloud asked. 

“Everything else can wait, if it doesn’t give you the chance to heal. I’ve seen you out there. You’re miserable,” Aerith answered. 

“I have to help. It’s my fault that’s its even like this.”

“Please, don’t blame yourself, Cloud.” It wasn’t nearly the first time they’ve told him that, and it was Aerith that said it now. 

“If I wasn’t persuaded to help him, it could have been different. Better,” he said softly. 

“If you didn’t do exactly what you did, then no one would be here at all,” Zack asserted. “Cloud,” he said, an imploring quality in his voice that said, ‘understand’. 

“Maybe.”

“Definitely,” Zack corrected. 

“And you need to truly move on. Not just living day by day. I mean have a place to call home,” Aerith said. Cloud looked at her. Home. He hasn’t had one since… The idea was daunting, but also…maybe it really could bring him peace. At least if it’s in the right place.

“I haven’t had a home for a long time either. It sounds perfect right about now, to be honest. We’ll protect this town. Build it up. Make it grow. Let’s just, try it?” Zack asked.

Cloud felt a pang of guilt at considering stopping his work out in Edge. “To stop rebuilding everything. Putting everything back in place that I destroyed, makes me feel guilty. But, maybe that’s looking at it wrong. To rebuild this world, something new needed to be made. From here.”

Aerith nodded her agreement with him, and took his hand. “I think so, too,” she said warmly. And her smile was everything, making Cloud’s heart swell. And he felt a real joy that he knew would last for quite a while. 

~

Cloud had trouble talking about Sephiroth with them, not because they didn’t want to talk about it with him, but because it made Cloud feel like he was meant to be a victim. He set his face against them now, at their choice of words. “made you,” “forced you,” “hurt you.” It made him feel powerless in a way he couldn’t take, and he snapped out, “It was from my own dreams that he took his ideas. He fed off what he felt from me. Aerith, I liked it!” He yelled the last. And immediately, he wanted to take back the words, feeling miserable, and seeing the hurt on their faces made him even more miserable. 

“No, I don’t mean that. Not exactly. I’m sorry,” Cloud breathed. “Just, stop making me into a victim. If I started thinking that way, I would just…” break? Probably. He couldn’t say it. 

“Don’t bury this anymore,” she went on, softly. “Or it will go too deep, and you may never be at peace with it.” 

“Peace?” he said, and scoffed.

“Peace. Damnit, Cloud. You deserve peace,” Aerith said vehemently. Zack placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

A tear ran down his face at that. And her face softened, and she stepped closer. “Cloud Strife,” she said as she placed her hands softly around him to the back of his neck, “You deserve all the happiness in the world, and only you can allow yourself to feel it – let yourself.” 

Another tear, and he resisted her words, looking away slightly from both of them. Until she stroked the back of his neck, over and over, and Zack put his forehead to his temple and squeezed his shoulder, and Cloud – comforted by their touches – started to believe it just a little bit. 

~

It’s been a month now since the three of them were all together. Cloud rushed on his motorcycle for the whole last day of travel to get there all the sooner. Now that he had a home with them, a month apart felt like way too long. He arrived in the early evening. He passed the Buster sword, stuck into the Earth, at the town entrance. It was worn out, and Cloud thought he would lay it to rest there as a symbol of protection, and Zack dug his into the dirt as well, on the other side of the entrance. Cloud liked seeing them together like that. 

Zack beat him here from a week long monster-sweep with the town guard, and Aerith was done with her work for the day. Cloud had been mainly in Edge during his time away, and then doing little odds and ends for the people there. Now, it felt more good than guilt-inducing to do it, and it gave him a deep satisfaction. 

When he walked into their house, a hearty stew was on the table, filling his nostrils with the familiar smell and making his stomach grumble. The agriculture here was simple, yet thriving, thanks to Aerith’s touch.

He went to the bedroom to get his gear off, and he could hear Aerith and Zack talking animatedly from inside. His heart was full to bursting just from hearing them. When he came in, they were all smiles, and when they looked at him, their smiles grew even wider at seeing each other after so long. Cloud’s own answering smile came easily. Zack came over to him and wrapped him in a hug. Cloud kissed him. “I missed you both.” 

“Missed you too.” Zack kissed him again. 

Aerith came giddily over and hugged him next, and they shared a lingering kiss. “You made good time.”

“I was in a rush,” he answered, touching her cheek. 

They had their dinner, soaking up the feeling of being reunited, and talking about what they had all been up to. 

After dinner, they went outside to the back of the house, and Cloud was struck by how Aerith’s flower garden had grown. “Aerith, they’re beautiful,” he said, and she beamed. They all sat on a blanket on the grass, watching the vibrancy around them. It wasn’t just the flowers. The vegetables, the grass, trees, the animals – Cloud noticed it on the way across town as well. The land was teeming with life in a way that Cloud has never seen before. He took Aerith’s hand. “It’s all so beautiful.” 

Her expression grew proud. “This place really is special, so connected to the Lifestream. I can feel it so easily now, and I can see it in you, too.” Cloud nodded his agreement. 

“Can we try something?” Aerith asked. “I showed it to Zack. I can…put us in a dream. It’s something I did with you a long time ago back in Midgar, but it’s so much easier now, and I can do more with it.”

“Really?” he asked, intrigued.

“Yeah, I think you’ll be impressed. But, I’m asking because, it’s kind of similar to the illusions you were put under, when you think about it. I wouldn’t want it to make you uncomfortable.” 

Cloud shook his head. “I…never thought of them as the same. Let’s do it.” 

They all got comfortable, laying back on the blanket. And then they were in the middle of a different field of flowers. It was the clearing with the wildflowers back in Kalm. 

Zack made an impressed whistling sound. 

“I remember how you liked it here,” Aerith commented as Cloud looked around. 

“I did. But I mostly liked it because I was with you,” Cloud told her, making Aerith smile. “This is amazing,” Cloud said serenely, leaned in, and kissed her. And he felt the kiss. Yes, this was more than a simple dream. “I can feel you,” he told her. 

“How about this?” Zack asked with a smile, pulling him slowly to him by the shirt and kissing him, making Cloud melt. It’s been too long. 

“I felt that, too,” Cloud answered softly, then kissed him again immediately, more hotly. 

Soon Cloud was laying back against Aerith, as Zack leaned heavily over him, kissing him hungrily. They shed his clothes while making him the center of attention - having been the longest away - and Cloud managed to get some clothes off of them. They raked their hands over him, and laid him down.

He could feel the flowers all around him, cool and soft. Then Aerith placed his hands above his head, and the flowers seemed to wrap themselves around his arms. Cloud looked to Aerith, who looked back at him with a smirk. 

Cloud smirked back, getting turned on at being held down. Ever since he really confronted what happened between him and Sephiroth, he got more and more comfortable with what he wanted, and by this point he wasn’t reluctant to indulge this desire anymore. The three of them made it theirs, instead. 

Aerith sucked on his neck, kneading the skin between her teeth, licked up his neck, and went a little lower, sucking again. Her hand cradled the opposite side of his neck and face. Zack ran his hands along his legs, to his knees, then spread his legs wide. The flowers next curled around his ankles, holding him down. Cloud moaned at that. Zack bent down and sucked on his inner thigh, and ran his hand along the juncture of his leg and torso. Cloud’s stomach muscles clenched and his dick twitched at all of their attentions – he was moaning over and over. 

Then Aerith pulled Zack up and they shed each other’s clothes as they kissed - and Cloud watched on, getting harder. When Aerith pulled down Zack’s underwear, he could see how hard he was – and Cloud was fully hard now as well. Then they both looked at Cloud, who must have been a sight, and rushed back to using their mouths to explore his bound body. Cloud closed his eyes, getting lost, and he felt the flowers wrap around his eyes to become a blindfold and Cloud moaned deeper, breath coming quick. He called their names as he felt their mouths on him, Aerith sucking his nipple, and Zack licking his dick. Cloud didn’t know how long he would last like this. 

Zack opened his throat and went down on him all the way, sucking harder, making Cloud keen, and a moment later Aerith shifted over him, and he felt the barest touch of her sex against his lips. Cloud licked her enthusiastically, and sucked on her, making her wet and moaning over him. 

Zack pushed his legs open wider, and opened him with his fingers until Cloud was pushing back against them. Then Zack was over him and pushing into him solidly, making Cloud cry out, and Cloud was lost again, prompting Aerith to get up, laughing. 

When he regained some of his senses he said, “I want to see you,” and a moment later, the flowers pulled away from his face, and he could see the want on Zack’s face, and the flex of his abs as he moved in him. 

“Let’s try this,” Aerith said, and he was being pushed up to a sitting position, the flowers giving way. “Sit on Zack, and look at me,” she said, excited and heated. Cloud complied, looking at Zack as he climbed into his lap, now unbound. He looked into his eyes, and then turned around and sank down on him, legs tucked on either side, while Zack was sitting on his own legs. Zack didn’t miss a beat, and grasped his dick with one hand, and pumped him as he thrust up into him, holding his hip with the other hand. Cloud leaned back into his chest, tipped his heard back, and they settled into a rhythm. 

Aerith came over to them, and, putting her hands on Cloud’s shoulders, as he straightened his head out to look at her, sat on Cloud’s cock. Surrounding him with her soft heat. They kissed slowly as the three of them worked together in a gentle rhythm, Cloud holding onto Aerith with both hands. 

Then they tipped him back a bit and Zack guided his hands over his head again, and over Zack’s shoulders, then wrapped a strong arm around his waist. He was being bound again with flowers, to stay in the position he was in, and they took him apart. 

Their movements were getting rougher by the minute, and soon Cloud was gasping uncontrollably. And when came, he arched his whole body, seeing colors behind his closed and covered eyes. 

He watched on hazily and contentedly after, laying down in the flowers, as Zack and Aerith joined together with continued enthusiasm. And enjoying the ecstasy on their faces when they came. 

~

It was a year on since Meteorfall, and they still called the Town of the Ancients their home. It was surprising how fulfilling it was to be there now. Cloud ventured out to other towns only occasionally at first, then more and more. And slowly, very slowly, he felt the burden lifting from himself, as he saw everyone else stepping up around the world and doing their part. 

Cloud and Aerith found a boy near the Church when they came to see it – Denzel. His parents were gone and he was so lost. Cloud could relate. And Aerith insisted that he come with them. At first to their small house in Edge. And then home. 

His guilt came back hard for a few days after that, knowing that his parents were gone because of him. And Cloud knew that he wasn’t the only kid without parents. But he managed to turn his inner crisis around – getting more used to correcting himself when he got like this. And Cloud was glad he did. Denzel opened up, and he was a great kid. 

~

Six months later. 

Denzel fell asleep on Cloud, and Cloud fell asleep too, leaning against him – tired from a long day. Cloud could hear the sounds of Aerith coming inside from gardening - taking off her boots and gloves, bringing a bowl to the kitchen. They were familiar sounds. Comforting. Zack came in a little while later, complaining about a monster that spewed gunk all over him. It effectively ended his nap, but Zack’s noisiness was comforting in its way as well. Cloud laughed at Zack’s exaggerated distress, eyes still closed. 

~

The three of them were home one evening, sitting around the table, Denzel still out playing with the other kids. 

“It’s impervious to physical attacks,” Zack insisted. “A real pain. You should come and show it who’s boss, Aerith.” 

“I would normally love to, but...” Aerith looked at Zack, then at Cloud with a complicated expression. Excitement, and love and compassion and trepidation. It was hard to read. “There’s something I wanted to tell you.”

“What is it?” Cloud asked, genuinely curious, but a little uneasy from her uneasiness. 

She bit on her lip for a moment, then said, “I’m pregnant,” she said, full of wonder and happiness. 

Zack stood up immediately and came over to her. She stood too, and he gave her the biggest hug he’s ever given her. Cloud watched on, stuck. Unable to move or think, mouth going slack. 

“Oh my god. Aerith. Thanks wonderful. I can’t believe it. You’re amazing.” Zack kissed her excitedly, and then they looked at each other in their shared enthusiasm for a long time. 

And in that time, Cloud’s mind kicked into gear. Into overdrive. In a frenzy. What? How? He knew how…it’s just. He wasn’t prepared. What kind of world would this baby inherit? There aren’t many doctors here, is it safe for her to stay? He should bring more doctors back from Edge. They have Denzel but, he’s older, like how Tifa and Kunsel take care of Marlene a lot of the time. This is completely different. Not a…baby. Everything’s changing. Again. Cloud has no idea how to take care of a baby. Will this tie him down? He was starting to feel tied down. Even though he’s spent a lot of time here, it was his choice, on his own terms, and theirs of course – Aerith and Zack. They’ll be expecting more from him. Much more. He was starting to get the urge to get on his bike and go. Anywhere. But what about Aerith? That would be really shitty of Cloud to do. It’s not like she can walk away as easily. 

Then he focused on the two of them again. And how happy they looked. They were kissing so sweetly. Aerith was going to have – a baby. His. Because whether it was technically Zack or Cloud’s biologically, they were a family. They were a family…Should they get married? That set off another wave of panic. One thing at a time. Back to the baby. 

Aerith, and Zack, they were both so loving. They’ll do great. Cloud…won’t be alone in this. And, it’ll actually be amazing to see. He was doing pretty well with Denzel, too. He really seemed to look up to Cloud. And now, Cloud’ll get to start at the beginning. They’re all in this together. And this inner crisis is getting him nowhere. He needed to talk to them. But first. First, he needs to share this happiness with them. And he did feel that seed of joy taking root in him. It made him jump up from his own chair, and over to them. 

Cloud kissed Aerith, and hugged her tight. And looked back at her. ‘I’m here,’ he thought. Her smile was brilliant. He looked at Zack next, and they both smiled, Cloud a bit helplessly, and Zack kissed him. When Cloud looked back at Aerith again, he touched her stomach, and Aerith put both of her hands over his and pressed him more firmly to her. 

Things are always changing. That’s natural. And sometimes it’s for the better.

**Author's Note:**

> Cloud got two first kisses! Lucky guy.
> 
> This is the most complex story I've written so far, so I would appreciate any comments or feedback that you have. Whether it be any blind spots on my part, what you like about it, or anything else!


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